'Do you feel that your life is empty?' The clinical utility of a one-off question for detecting depression in elderly care home residents

摘要

There is a high prevalence of depression in the elderly living in residential care homes (6-11% for major depression and 30% for depressive symptoms) . The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends the use of ultra-short questions as a screening method for depression . The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is effective in screening for depression in the elderly . Shorter versions have been designed for use in primary care, medical ward and residential care settings [5-8]. D'Ath et al. found the question 'Do you feel that your life is empty?' to be the best question of the GDS-15 when screening for depression in elderly primary care patients (sensitivity of 59% and specificity of 75%) .