Mertens Liv Silja, Geschke Katharina, Hardt Roland, Mohr Michael
Abteilung für Geriatrie, Zentrum für Allgemeinmedizin und Geriatrie, Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Deutschland.
Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Deutschland.
Z Gerontol Geriatr. 2025 Aug 26. doi: 10.1007/s00391-025-02491-9.
Depression is a common but often overlooked problem in the care of older people. It impairs the quality of life, worsens the course of somatic diseases and causes high healthcare costs.
To investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients receiving acute geriatric treatment, taking gender-specific differences and correlations with cognitive and functional impairments into account.
Retrospective analysis of anonymized data from 345 patients who were treated in an acute geriatric inpatient ward at a German university hospital in 2019. The geriatric depression scale (GDS-15), the mini-mental status test (MMST), Barthel index and documented depression diagnoses at admission were recorded.
Complete data were available for 286 patients and of these 36.8% showed noticeable depressive symptoms (GDS-15 > 5) but only 10.4% had a previous diagnosis of depression. There were no significant gender-specific differences. The MMST correlated negatively with the GDS-15 in women, while the Barthel Index showed no correlation.
Depressive symptoms are common in geriatric settings. Gender differences may play a lesser role in older age. The lack of correlation between depressive symptoms and functional impairments but the partial correlation with cognitive impairments, points to the diagnostic challenge of age-related multimorbidity. The discrepancy between noticeable depressive symptoms and few documented diagnoses of depression indicates possible gaps in the prehospital detection and recording of depressive disorders.
抑郁症在老年人护理中是一个常见但常被忽视的问题。它会损害生活质量，使躯体疾病的病程恶化，并导致高昂的医疗费用。
调查接受老年急性治疗的患者中抑郁症状的患病率，同时考虑性别差异以及与认知和功能障碍的相关性。
对2019年在德国一家大学医院的老年急性住院病房接受治疗的345例患者的匿名数据进行回顾性分析。记录老年抑郁量表（GDS-15）、简易精神状态检查（MMST）、Barthel指数以及入院时记录的抑郁症诊断。
286例患者有完整数据，其中36.8%表现出明显的抑郁症状（GDS-15＞5），但只有10.4%曾被诊断为抑郁症。不存在显著的性别差异。在女性中，MMST与GDS-15呈负相关，而Barthel指数无相关性。
抑郁症状在老年患者中很常见。性别差异在老年时可能作用较小。抑郁症状与功能障碍之间缺乏相关性，但与认知障碍存在部分相关性，这表明了与年龄相关的多种疾病并存情况下的诊断挑战。明显的抑郁症状与少数记录在案的抑郁症诊断之间的差异表明，在院前抑郁症的检测和记录方面可能存在差距。
