A new interactive video online may help general practitioners increase recognition of depression and its symptoms among older persons.
It’s designed to test a GP’s ability to spot signs of depression, as well as identifying barriers to proper diagnoses.
The tool comes after the charity Age Concern released survey results last summer indicating that more than 80 percent of older persons with clin
ical depression did not receive the necessary treatment because of ageist attitudes and age-based rules.
The issue, says the charity, is that two million older persons show depression symptoms, yet fewer than 15 percent ever obtain treatment.
It has received support from the Royal College of General Practitioners, with mental health champion Carolyn Chew-Graham recommending the online activity to GPs as a good addition to their "Continuing Professional Health Programme"
Older people who have depression were 2.5 times more likely to need Alzheimer’s care according to results of a study from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, although the study found a correlative, not causal relationship between the two conditions.
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