[The 'pleasant events schedule' for the elderly]

The coping with depression course is a psychoeducational treatment modality for unipolar depression. Increasing the number of pleasant events in the lives of participants is one of the central themes of the course. The Pleasant Events Schedule is a very useful instrument in this course. The coping with depression course as well as the pleasant events schedule are adapted for the use in older persons. The scores of 163 older persons on the Dutch version of the Pleasant Events Schedule are used to estimate the psychometric value of the schedule. Furthermore, the social learning theory of depression, developed by Lewinsohn, is described. This theory forms the theoretical basis of the course and the schedule.