Older Adults and Antidepressants
Do you have a loved one suffering from depression?
Does it seem that things aren’t getting better even though the doctor prescribed them with an antidepressant?
Well there may be a good reason for that:
A recent study in the Netherlands suggest that adults – ages 60 and up – are simply not taking medication for depression despite receiving a prescription from a primary care doctor.
Interestingly, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “depression is both underdiagnosed and undertreated in primary care settings. Symptoms are often overlooked and untreated because they co-occur with other problems encountered by older adults.”
Yet we now know that even with a primary care physician’s
diagnoses, the older adult may likely not even take the medication.
Depression Among Older Adults
The WHO considers depression along with dementia among older people to be public health issues.
Although depression isn’t a normal part of ageing, older people are more prone to suffer from the chances of getting it rise in people suffering from other physical health conditions.
Depression can show up at the same time as other medical illnesses, like Parkinson’s disease, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. And the depression often makes the other conditions worse.
Helping Older Adults With Depression
Why not find out if your loved one is taking their antidepressant? If you don’t want to raise the topic with them directly, you can, alternatively, mention your concern to the doctor and ask him or her to find out.
Even if older adults and antidepressants don’t go together naturally, you can be there to provide the missing link.
The researchers conclude that, “emphasizing the importance of adhering to the optimal length of antidepressant therapy might be prudent first steps to improving adherence.”
So as a first and important step, simply tell your loved one about the importance of following the doctors orders.
On an interesting note, the researchers found that people who took larger numbers of prescribed drugs were generally more adherent when it came to antidepressants as well. So if your loved one fits this category, you may have less to be concerned about.
More About Depression and Older Adults
To learn more about depression, its signs, symptoms, and treatment and support options, feel free to download the National Institute of Mental Health’s Depression What You Need to Know booklet and their publication on Older Adults and Depression.
Older adults and antidepressants may not make a good match, but you might be able to make it work out.