Why do the depressed elderly die?

✍ Scribed by John T. O'Brien; David Ames

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 471 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930090902

✦ Synopsis

In younger cohorts, this increased mortality is primarily due to an excess of suicides, but this does not appear to be the case for the elderly. In Murphy's study of 124 elderly depressed patients, 1 -year mortality was 14% and 4-year mortality 34%, both rates being 2-3 times the expected rate, but only one patient committed suicide. Other work also shows that suicides in the elderly do not account for many deaths at follow-up (