Complexity in late-life depression: impact of confounding factors on diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes

Late-life depression is a heterogeneous syndrome. Although depression in elderly patients is highly treatable, a number of factors or confounds create complexity in its overall management. Patient factors, such as medical illness, neuropsychiatric comorbidity, and race, may interact with provider factors to make management more complex. Outcomes and services research indicate that these factors, particularly medical illness, affect whether late-life depression is appropriately detected, diagnosed, and treated. Attention to such factors must be included in an agenda for mental health services research, with emphasis on the delivery of effective treatment to elderly patients with depression and improved outcomes in clinical settings.