Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (19)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by POND, C D.
Right arrow Articles by SAUNDERS, N. A
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by POND, C D.
Right arrow Articles by SAUNDERS, N. A
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Family Practice Vol. 7, No. 3, 190-194
© Oxford University Press 1990

research-article

Recognition of Depression in the Elderly: A Comparison of General Practitioner Opinions and the Geriatric Depression Scale

C DIMTY POND, ANDREA MANT, CHARLES BRIDGES-WEBB*, CATHERINE PURCELL, E ANN EYLAND{dagger}, HELEN HEWITT and NICHOLAS A SAUNDERS{ddagger}

*Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Australia
Department of Medicine, University of Sydney Australia
{dagger}School of Economic and Finanancial Studies, Macquarie University Australia
{ddagger}Discipline of Medicine, University of Newcastle Australia

Correspondence to: Dr Andrea Mant, General Practice & Primary Care Research Unit, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, 43 Lower Fort Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

As part of a larger study, 133 subjects aged 70 years and over were screened for depression using the Geriatric Depression Scale, a 30-item questionnaire, as the screening instrument. Cognitive status was assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination. The subject's own general practitioner was asked his/her opinion as to whether the subject was depressed. Poor agreement was found between depression as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale and the general practitioner's assessment. Possible reasons for this include the difficulty of finding a satisfactory operational definition of depression for use by general practitioners, the problems of identifying depression in the elderly, the arbitrary definition provided by the scale and the confounding of depression, as measured by the scale, with cognitive status.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.