Diagnosing, screening, and monitoring depression in the elderly

The results may be translated into timely treatment and lead to better health outcomes and a quicker recovery.8 Several tools have been developed for screening and assessing depression in older patients in various settings, such as the Brief Assessment Schedule for the Elderly (BASDED), the SELFCARE (D) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression scale (CES-D).5 Geriatric Depression Sc [...] Critical Appraisal of Individual Studies The included SRs were critically appraised using the AMSTAR checklist and the methods used when conducting the literature search, study selection, quality assessment, data extraction, and for summarizing the data were assessed.9 Guidelines were assessed with the AGREE II instrument.10 The scope and purpose, stakeholder involvement, rigor of development, cla [...] Country of Origin Both SRs were conducted in the United Kingdom.2,7 The three guidelines were conducted in the United States11,12 and Canada.4 Diagnosing, Screening, and Monitoring Depression in the Elderly 3 Patient Population In one SR,2 the population was limited to inpatients, and the number of study participants ranged from 46 to 221. [...] The quality of the included studies was reported in one SR.2 The patient characteristics were reported briefly in the two SRs. [...] Diagnosing, Screening, and Monitoring Depression in the Elderly 4 Summary of Findings What are the evidence-based guidelines associated diagnosing, screening, and monitoring depression in the elderly?