Recognition of depression in the elderly: a comparison of general practitioner opinions and the Geriatric Depression Scale.

As part of a larger study, 133 subjects aged 70 years and over were screened for depression using the Geriatric Depression Scale, a 30-item questionnaire, as the screening instrument. Cognitive status was assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination. The subject's own general practitioner was asked his/her opinion as to whether the subject was depressed. Poor agreement was found between depression as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale and the general practitioner's assessment. Possible reasons for this include the difficulty of finding a satisfactory operational definition of depression for use by general practitioners, the problems of identifying depression in the elderly, the arbitrary definition provided by the scale and the confounding of depression, as measured by the scale, with cognitive status.