Longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and health in normal older and middle-aged adults.

Abstract

Comorbidity between health and depression is salient in late life, when risk for physical illness rises. Other community studies have not distinguished between the effects of brief and long-standing depressive symptoms on excess morbidity and mortality. S. Cohen and M. S. Rodriguez's (1995) differential hypothesis of pathways between depression and health was used to examine the relationships between health and depression in a prospective probability sample of 1,479 community-resident middle-aged and older adults. Findings suggest that different durations of depressive symptoms have different relationships to health. Health had an impact on short-term increases in depressive symptoms but depressive symptoms had a weaker impact on health. The reciprocal impact was indistinguishable from the health influence on depression. In contrast, longer term depressive symptoms had a clear impact on health. The results imply that physical illness can affect depressive states; depressive traits but not states can affect illness.

Physical health, subjective health, and psychological distress in older adults: Reciprocal relationships concurrently and over time

“…This result stands in contrast to the yet unconvincing demonstration of a path leading from depression to objective changes in health condition (Meeks et al, 2000;O'Rourke et al, 2003). However this result converges with numerous previous reports cited earlier in pointing out that, although physical health and psychological distress share common variance, both variables also contribute independently to perceived health (e.g.…”

“…In contrast, the reverse path, i.e. leading from depression to objective changes in health condition, has not yet been convincingly demonstrated (Meeks, Murrell, & Mehl, 2000;O'Rourke, Cappeliez, & Guindon, 2003). Interestingly, this last study showed that perceived health provided a unique incremental increase to the prediction of depressive symptoms over and beyond the contribution of objective health indices.…”

Is poor mental health a risk factor for retirement? Findings from a longitudinal population survey

“…job qualities, increased leisure opportunities) that may 'push' and 'pull' individuals towards retirement [15][16][17]. Mental health is strongly related to these established predictors of retirement [2,18]. The role of poor health as driver to retirement may be particularly relevant to people below the traditional retirement age, who would otherwise remain in the workforce [19,20].…”

Predictors of a new depression diagnosis among older adults admitted to complex continuing care: implications for the depression rating scale (DRS)

“…Comorbid medical conditions further complicate the detection of depression in this population [8] due to the misattribution of symptoms to a physical problem rather than a depressive disorder. In addition to the obvious implications for quality of life, depression has been linked to medical burden [9], morbidity [10], mortality [11,12], length of stay in hospital [13], physician visits, hospitalisation, and nursing home placement [14]. Although early detection and treatment of depression in this population is vital, current approaches to care too often leave depression undiagnosed.…”