The work in this thesis focuses on investigation of the appearance of depression in later life. Although a different presentation of late-life compared to early-life has been suggested for... Show more The work in this thesis focuses on investigation of the appearance of depression in later life. Although a different presentation of late-life compared to early-life has been suggested for many decades, it remains unclear whether this really is the case. Our studies focus on the impact of age and somatic diseases on the appearance of late-life depression. Somatic diseases in older age may affect both the symptom profile and the course of depression. We found that neither higher somatic disease burden nor higher age contribute to more severe somatic symptoms of late-life depression. However, higher somatic disease burden does contribute to higher severity of mood symptoms of late-life depression. Furthermore, we found that older old compared with younger old depressed persons show less mood and motivational symptoms of depression. This finding implies that, particularly in older old persons aged ≥70 years, late-life depression may not be recognized properly. In line with previous studies, we confirmed that the overall somatic disease burden is associated with a poor course of late-life depression. The course of late-life depression is particularly unfavourable in the presence of cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease and chronic non-specific lung diseases. Show less
Hegeman, J.M.; Waal, M.W.M. de; Comijs, H.C.; Kok, R.M.; Mast, R.C. van der 2015
