Background Depression is the most common mental disorder in the community-d
welling elderly.
Aims To determine the three-year prognosis of depression in a cohort of 127
community-dwelling elderly subjects and identify factors relevant to outco
me.
Method The subjects, diagnosed depressed at year 0 using the GMS-AGECAT pac
kage, were followed up three years later. A number of factors were investig
ated for an association with recovery from, or persistence of, depression.
Results At follow-up, 30.2% of the depressed subjects had died, 34.9% had p
ersistent or relapsed case-level depression, 24.5% had other case- or subca
se-level mental illness and 10.4% had recovered completely. Physical ill-he
alth. bereavement and positive family history of depression were associated
with poor outcome, whereas treatment with antidepressant medication signif
icantly improved prognosis.
Conclusions Late-life depression in community-dwelling subjects is a chroni
c condition. However. the positive response to antidepressant medication su
ggests that it should be vigorously treated.
Declaration of interest This study was partly funded by the Health Research
Board of Ireland.