Six-month trajectories of self-reported depressive symptoms in long-term care

Abstract

The six-month course of depressive symptoms in LTC is generally stable. Most residents who experience a more severe symptom trajectory can be identified at baseline.

The Course of Depressive Symptoms Over 36 Months in 696 Newly Admitted Nursing Home Residents

“…The study used the Geriatric Depression Scale to monitor depressive symptoms over 6 months, excluded residents with moderate to severe cognitive impairment, and found 3 homogeneous groups with distinct trajectories separated according to symptom severity. 46 In our study, approximately 5% followed the trajectory with increasing symptoms that crossed other trajectories. It would be of interest to characterize this group further to better identify residents at increasing risk for depression, but the nominal regression model was not able to demonstrate any differences compared with the group with persistent mild symptoms.…”

Trajectories of Depression in Late Life: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study

“…Previous studies have reported results from trajectory analyses in different settings for DLL [1,[13][14][15][24][25][26][27][28][29] . However, few such studies have included hospitalized older patients in specialist health care services for old age psychiatry.…”

Psychological prognosis after newly diagnosed chronic conditions: socio-demographic and clinical correlates

“…Depression leads to decrements in health compared with many chronic diseases. With the rapidly growing senior population and prolonged life expectancy, examining which kinds of chronic conditions have the greatest impact on older adults' psychological burden and ascertaining the timing of the highest psychological burden (McCusker et al, 2016), as well as modifiable factors, demands attention.…”