Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-q9hcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-11T07:46:47.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Increased Mortality Rates in Late-life Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Elaine Murphy ,
Rae Smith ,
James Lindesay  and
Jim Slattery
Elaine Murphy*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, UMDS Guy's Campus
Rae Smith
Affiliation:
Goodmayes Hospital, Ilford
James Lindesay
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, UMDS Guy's Campus
Jim Slattery
Affiliation:
Southampton University
*
∗York Clinic, Guy's Hospital, London SEI 9RT
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Physical illness at referral and subsequent mortality were studied in a group of elderly patients with depression, and compared with age/sex-matched controls. The depressed group was significantly less well at first interview, and had a significantly higher 4–year mortality. When the effect of physical illness was controlled, the depressed patients (particularly the men) still had a significantly higher 4–year mortality, suggesting that the greater mortality in the depressed group was not due to differences in physical health alone.

Type
Annotation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 3 , March 1988 , pp. 347 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Avery, D. & Winokur, G. (1976) Mortality in depressed patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy and antidepressants. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1029–1037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Babigan, H. M. & Odoroff, C. L. (1969) The mortality experiences of a population with psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 470–479.Google Scholar
Bartrop, R. W., Lazarus, L., Luckhurst, E., Kiloh, L. G. & Penny, R. (1977) Depressed lymphocyte function after bereavement. The Lancet, i, 834–836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bird, J. M., Levy, R. & Jacoby, R. J. (1986) Computed tomography in the elderly: changes over time in a normal population. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 80–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, J., Brooks, P., Carstairs, V. & Giles, L. (1980) Reliability of a survey psychiatric assessment schedule for the elderly. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 148–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1978) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Dreyfuss, F., Asberg, H. & Assael, M. I. (1969) The relationship of myocardial infarction to depressive illness. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 17, 73–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., Woodruff, R. A., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–73.Google Scholar
Fras, I., Litin, E. M. & Bartholomew, L. G. (1968) Mental symptoms as an aid in the early diagnosis of carcinoma of the pancreas. Gastroenterology, 55, 191–198.Google Scholar
Hendrickson, E., Levy, R. & Post, F. (1979) Averaged evoked responses in relation to the cognitive and affective state of elderly psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 494–501.Google Scholar
Jacoby, R. J. & Bird, J. M. (1981) Computed tomography and the outcome of affective disorder: a follow-up study of elderly patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 124–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. (1962) Outcome and cause of death in mental disorders of old age: a long-term follow-up of functional and organic psychoses. Acta Psychiatrica Scandmavica, 38, 249–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. & Bergmann, K. (1966) Physical disability and mental health in old age. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 10, 3–12.Google Scholar
Kerr, T. A., Schapira, K. A Roth, M. (1969) The relationship between premature death and affective disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 1277–1282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacDonald, A. J. D. & Dunn, J. (1982) Death and the expressed wish to die in the elderly: an outcome study. Age and Ageing, 11, 189–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maltzberg, B. (1937) Mortality among patients with involutional melancholia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 93, 1231–1238.Google Scholar
Murphy, E. (1983) The prognosis of depression in old age. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 111–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, E. & Brown, G. W. (1980) Life events, psychiatric disturbance and physical illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 326–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1983) Mortality Statistics. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M., Benjamin, B. & Fitzgerald, R. G. (1969) Broken heart: a statistical study of increased mortality among widowers. British Medical Journal, i, 740–744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, F. (1972) The management and nature of depressive illness in late life: a follow-through study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 393–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rabins, P.V., Harris, K. & Koren, S. (1985) High fatality rates of late-life depression associated with cardiovascular disease. Journal of Affective Disorders, 9, 165–167.Google Scholar
Riecke, J. (1975) Über depressive psychosen in Verlaufe von Hirntumorkrankungen. Nervenarzt, 46, 152–159.Google Scholar
Robinson, R. G., Kubos, K. L., Starr, L. B., Rao, K. & Price, T. R. (1983) Mood changes in stroke patients: relationship to lesion location. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 24, 555–566.Google Scholar
Schliefer, S. J., Keller, S. E., Sivis, S. G., Davis, K. L. & Stein, M. (1985) Depression and immunity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 129–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stenstedt, A. (1959) Involutional melancholia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 127 (suppl.).Google Scholar
Whitlock, F. A. (1978) Suicide, cancer and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 269–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.