Criteria for diagnosing depression in the setting of medical disease.

The evaluation of depression in the setting of medical disease is a complex task that requires considerable clinical skills. Physical illness is a common cause of psychopathology and this should alert the physician to vigorously search for possible organic explanations of depressive symptoms, especially in the elderly, where organic affective syndromes seem to be most prevalent. The multifactorial determinants and modes of expression of depression in the medically ill require further psychosomatic studies.