Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2009 Nov;22(6):522-6. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e32832fcd93.
Research in geriatric depression has always had a multidisciplinary bent, particularly in methods used to characterize depression. Understanding diagnosis, psychiatric comorbidities, and course continues to be a goal of clinical researchers. Those interested in cognitive neuroscience and basic neuroscience have more recently trained their sights on late-life depression. This review identifies recent progress in the characterization of geriatric depression using a variety of methodologies.
Depression in the elderly remains underdetected and underdiagnosed, particularly in nonmental health settings. Studies of the impact of psychiatric comorbidities and of the negative outcomes of depression in older adults demonstrate that geriatric depression is a serious medical condition that not only affects mood but can also lead to functional and cognitive decline. Advances in neuroimaging technology have demonstrated structural and functional changes in the brains of older depressed patients. With the advent of brain banks in neuropsychiatry, we are now seeing postmortem neuroanatomical studies that seek to extend findings from clinical practice and from neuroimaging research.
Clinicians should become more aware of advances in detection of depression, the effect of psychiatric comorbidities, the poor mood and cognitive outcomes associated with late-life depression and should keep abreast of recent neuroimaging and neuroanatomical findings.
老年抑郁症的研究一直具有多学科倾向，尤其是在用于描述抑郁症的方法上。了解诊断、精神共病和病程仍然是临床研究人员的目标。那些对认知神经科学和基础神经科学感兴趣的人最近将目光投向了老年抑郁症。本综述确定了使用各种方法描述老年抑郁症的最新进展。
老年人的抑郁症仍然未被充分发现和诊断，尤其是在非心理健康环境中。对精神共病的影响以及老年抑郁症负面结果的研究表明，老年抑郁症是一种严重的医疗状况，它不仅影响情绪，还会导致功能和认知能力下降。神经影像学技术的进步已经证明了老年抑郁患者大脑的结构和功能变化。随着神经精神病学脑库的出现，我们现在看到了一些旨在将临床实践和神经影像学研究的发现扩展到死后神经解剖学研究的文章。
临床医生应该更加了解抑郁症的检测进展、精神共病的影响、与老年抑郁症相关的不良情绪和认知结果，并跟上最近的神经影像学和神经解剖学发现。
