Dementia and depression: Co-distribution and risk factors in ageriatric in- and outpatient sample
C. Morawetz
Bok Engelsk 1996
| Utgitt | 1996
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| Omfang | Side 369- 375
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| Opplysninger | The results of a cross-sectional study on N = 212 elderly in- andoutpatients are presented including sociodemographic data, physicalfindings, CAT-scan and EEG, as well as psychological tests forcognitive performance and affective symptoms. Forty-one percent ofthe patients showed mild and 13% severe cognitive deficits.Depression was diagnosed in 23% of the severely impaired and in 16%of the cognitively mildly impaired or unimpaired patients.Statistical analysis revealed that increasing age, female sex and lowpremorbid intellectual level were significantly associated with lossof cognitive function. Dementia and depression were not significantlyassociated with each other. The only risk factor for depression was ahistory of affective illness, but not cognitive deficits or socialsituation. CAT-scan and EEG were abnormal in 50% of the patients;however, this did not correlate with cognitive impairment or thepresence of depression. From this study it is concluded thatdepression and dementia coincide frequently in elderly patients, butthat they are associated with different risk factors It is suggestedthat dementia and depression are treated as two distinct diseaseentities.
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| Emner |
