Screening, Detection and Management of Depression in Elderly Primary Care Attenders. II: II: Detection and Fitness for Treatment: a Case Record Study

Case note data were obtained for 186 elderly primary care attenderswho also completed the 15 item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS15).The presence or absence in the case notes of a current or pastdiagnosis of depression, of current treatment of depression,and of a number of clinical features of depression were noted.Case notes were also rated for the presence or absence of contraindicationsto the use of tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and to serotonin-specificreuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Whereas 65 (35%) patients wererated as ‘cases’ of depression on the GDS15, only28 (15%) had a current case note diagnosis of depression and37 (20%) had one or more current symptoms of depression recordedin the case notes. Patients rated by their GP as having oneor more current symptoms of depression scored higher on theGDS15 (P < 0.05) and were more likely to be categorized asa GDS case (P = 0.05). There was no significant relationshipbetween GDS caseness and a current case note diagnosis of depression.Seventy-three patients (39%) had a past history of depressionand 53 (28.5%) patients had previously been treated with antidepressants.The former was significantly associated with GDS caseness (P< 0.05). Twenty-four patients (13%) were currently on antidepressants,19 of them receiving adequate doses (equivalent to at least75 mg of amitriptyline). Current antidepressant treatment wasnot associated with GDS ‘caseness’. A significantlyhigher proportion of patients (both in the sample as a wholeand in the subgroup of GDS15 depression ‘cases’)had a medical condition or were taking a drug that mitigatedagainst the use of TCAs than was the case for SSRIs.