Three-year prognosis of depression in the community-dwelling elderly

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.