engleski

Geriatric depression scale - unavoidable tool in the elderly treatment on the internal medicine department

Introduction and Objectives Depression is the most common mental disorder in the elderly population with a major impact on the quality of life and mortality. Depression has a significant impact on the treatment outcome of chronic non-infectious diseases, such as cardiovascular and neurological diseases or tumors in their acute and chronic phases. There are several tests available to detect a suspicion of depressive disorder. One of the most used tests is the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15). The goal of our research was to determine the incidence of depressive symptoms in people hospitalized in the geriatric department. Materials and Methods A total of 1159 patients were included in the retrospective analysis (421 men and 738 females), in the age between 65 and 101 years. All subjects were tested with GDS-15 (positive test implies a GDS-15 value of > 5). The results were analyzed by Statistica 13.3 Tribco, USA. Results In a total of 266 (23%) patients the test confirmed the existence of depressive symptoms (90 men and 176 females). In women, symptoms are mostly present in women who are widows, divorced, or unmarried (121 women-68, 7%). In the male population, the majority are married men or men who live in a partnership (59 men– 65, 6%) Conclusion Depression is present in a high percentage of elderly patients. Although patients are hospitalized for some other disease, early detection of depressive symptoms may contribute to greater success in treating the underlying disease. GDS-15 is a simple method that can detect the presence of depressive symptoms in patients applicable on any hospital ward Routine screening is necessary for timely recognition of depressive symptoms, conducting further tests in the detection of depression and initiation of therapy. This can achieve greater success in the treatment of basic illness.

geriatric depression scale, internal medicine, elderly, depression

nije evidentirano