Applicability of 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale to detect depression in elderly medical outpatients

Om Prakash; Laxmi Narayan Gupta; Veer Bhadur Singh; Girish Nagarajarao

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2009.04.005

Applicability of 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale to detect depression in elderly medical outpatients

Asian J Psychiatr. 2009 Jun;2(2):63-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2009.04.005. Epub 2009 May 19.

Authors

Om Prakash¹, Laxmi Narayan Gupta, Veer Bhadur Singh, Girish Nagarajarao

Affiliation

¹ Geriatric Clinic & Services, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India.

PMID: 23051030
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2009.04.005

Abstract

Elder depressives approach physicians for their medical problems, but the detection of their depression is poor. This study aimed to explore the screening for depressive symptoms using a 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in medical clinics. The study was carried out in outpatient setting of geriatric clinic of tertiary care hospital using the Hindi version of GDS-15. Out of 100 eligible older medical clinic patients, 22% of participants scored high on the GDS (≥5) and 18% were definitely having a depressive disorder as per ICD10. The sensitivity of the GDS instrument was 100% and specificity 94%. This study confirmed that a brief screening instrument like the GDS helps physicians to identify and diagnose depression in the medical settings. The need of the hour is to train health personnel involved in geriatric care regarding identifying, diagnosing and managing depression in medical clinics.