Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in the Elderly Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression in the Elderly Mental disorders are becoming more prevalent in today's society as people add stress and pressure to their daily lives. The elderly population is not eliminated as a candidate for a disorder just because they may be retired. In fact, mental disorders affect 1 in 5 elderly people. One would think that with disorders being rather prevalent in this age group that there would be an abundance of treatment programs, but this is not the case. Because the diagnosis of an individual's mental state is subjective in nature, many troubled people go untreated regularly (summer 1998). Depression in the elderly population is a common occurrence, yet the diagnosis and treatment seem to slip through the cracks. Depression is an example of a metal condition that may slip through the cracks when it comes to detection. The health care industry contributes to the overlooking of depression in the elderly because of the overwhelming desire to keep costs down. The factors of depression are open for interpretation, which results in different doctors looking for different things. In addition to that, elderly people may not exhibit the traditional symptoms of depression either. Aged individuals may have symptoms of depression that go unnoticed due the fact that those symptoms are being attributed to a different ailment. "One half of all depressed patients seen by general physicians are not identified as depressed (August 1995)." Also, some of the things people look for in detecting depression are things that society seems to think are the norm for our elders (October 1999). In addition, there appear to be a few fundamental differences between depression in the young and old. Elderly people tend to have more ideational symptoms, which are related to thoughts, ideas, and guilt. Elderly depressed individuals are also more likely to have psychotic depressive an...
