Depressed Elderly Fail to Get Better: Study
Mon Jul 15,10:40 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Depression among the elderly is a common and often chronic condition because it usually goes untreated, Dutch researchers said Sunday.

The six-year study involving interviews with 277 elderly people previously diagnosed with mild to deep depression found roughly two-thirds had recurrent bouts of the disease.

Only 14% of the participants, who were aged 55 to 85 at the start of the study, had short-lived symptoms and 23% reported remissions in their depression.

"In later life, depression is a common disorder, with well-documented consequences for well-being, daily functioning (and) mortality," psychiatrist Aarjan Beekman of Vrije University in Amsterdam wrote.

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