Major depression in elderly medical inpatients in Greece, prevalence and identification

The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of episodes of DSM-IV major depression, as well as their identification rates, in elderly inpatients in a general hospital in Greece.

200 selected patients, 65 years old and over, hospitalized in Surgery and Internal Medicine Departments, were assessed for major depression over a period of 12 months (October 2006-November 2007) by means of SCID-I/P, HADS, BDI and GDS-15. During the same period, liaison calls from the same departments were evaluated and findings were compared.

When psychiatric screening was performed, 28 patients (14%) were diagnosed as suffering from a major depressive episode. During the same period, there were only 20 liaison calls from the same departments for patients over 65 years old, from which 4 patients were found to be suffering from major depression. Comparison between the two periods showed significant underestimation of depression. All psychometric scales detected depression sufficiently.

In general hospital elderly inpatients, depression still remains underestimated. Depression symptom scales could be used as routine tests for screening major depression.