MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER IN THE ELDERLY - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF ONSET AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

In order to determine if later age of onset of depression in the elderly is associated with increased cognitive impairment, the scores on the Mini‐Mental State Examinations of 41 elderly depressed patients were correlated with the ages of onset of depression. All subjects, average age 74.7, were referred to a psychiatric day hospital for treatment of a major depressive disorder, and all scored at least 14 on the 17‐item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The ages of first mental health contact and symptom onset were significantly negatively correlated with Mini‐Mental State scores (p =0.021 and 0.035 respectively) after the confounding effect of age was adjusted for using partial correlations. The relation between late‐onset depression and cognitive impairment lends support to the hypothesis that late‐onset depressive disorders in the elderly may be associated with occult brain disease. Copyright © 1991 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.