Burgut F Tuna, Benaur Marina, Hencliffe Claire
Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Expert Rev Neurother. 2006 Jan;6(1):65-72. doi: 10.1586/14737175.6.1.65.
Late-life depression refers to depressive syndromes defined in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and in the International Classification of Diseases that arise in adults older than 65 years of age. Late life depressive syndromes often arise in the context of medical and neurologic disorders. There is a high prevalence of depression in various neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease, Parkinson's disease, cerebrovascular disease and frontotemporal dementias. It has been well recognized that late life depression may itself be the presenting symptom of a latent neurodegenerative disorder. Therefore, an accurate diagnosis of late-onset depression may serve to identify a high-risk group that would benefit from initiation of therapies with the goal of delaying or possibly even preventing the onset of dementia.
老年期抑郁症是指在美国精神病学协会的《诊断与统计手册》以及《国际疾病分类》中定义的、出现在65岁以上成年人中的抑郁综合征。老年期抑郁综合征常发生于患有内科疾病和神经疾病的背景下。在各种神经退行性疾病中，如阿尔茨海默病、路易体病、帕金森病、脑血管疾病和额颞叶痴呆，抑郁症的患病率很高。人们已经充分认识到，老年期抑郁症本身可能是一种潜在神经退行性疾病的首发症状。因此，准确诊断迟发性抑郁症有助于识别出一个高危群体，该群体可能会从旨在延缓甚至预防痴呆症发作的治疗中获益。
