Late-life depression – clinical aspects

Abstract

Depression is one of the most common health problems in older adults, but it is often undetected, underdiagnosed, untreated, or undertreated. Understanding the burden of late-life mood disorders is particularly important because the proportion of older adults will nearly triple, increasing from 672 million in 2005 to almost 1.9 billion by 2050. The group of oldest adults, aged 85 or more, now estimated at 5.7 million, will grow to 6.6 million by 2020. By mid-century, projected life expectancy in developed countries will be 82 years old, and there will be two elderly persons for every child (www.un.org). It is projected that the number of people older than 65 with psychiatric disorders will reach 15 million by 2030, with the majority suffering from mood disorders. Late-life depression carry additional risk for suicide, medical comorbidity, disability, decreasing the quality of life of patients and their families, so late-life depression is particularly costly, 2.3 times higher than that of the non-elderly patients. Unfortunately, prevention and early detection of late-life depression remain problematic. The challenge to clinicians and researchers is to develop a model that will facilitate appropriate and personalized treatment of late-life depression.