Olga Lainidi summarises a recently Dutch RCT which asks: is behavioural activation a more cost-effective and accessible alternative to primary care treatments for older adults with depression?
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Sarah McDonald is left feeling frustrated by this meta-analysis of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy for depression and anxiety in older people.
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Lisa Burscheidt appraises an RCT of telemedicine psychotherapy for depression in older veterans, which establishes non-inferiority of telemedicine delivery versus same-room delivery of behavioural activation.
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This recent meta-analysis confirms that psychotherapy has a moderate to high effect on depression in older adults. However, a note of caution is sounded because of publication bias and the low quality of several of the included studies.
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Depression is such a widely known issue now that it barely needs introduction. It’s something we Elves have covered with interest, looking at the effectiveness of various treatments, like psychotherapy, medication and exercise. For older adults though, there remains a somewhat hazy picture of what treatments work best. Most of the evidence base for the [read the full story…]
One of the criticisms that health professionals sometimes make of evidence-based research is that individual studies or reviews do not apply to the specific patient they are caring for. Of course, each patient is unique with their own values and preferences, as well as their own particular clinical characteristics, genetic make-up, biological markers and sociodemographic [read the full story…]
It’s a sad fact of life that as people get older they sometimes find themselves living a lonely lifestyle; cut off from stimulating social networks and all of the activities and benefits that friendships entail. Social exclusion and a lack of frequent interaction may predict impaired cognition in the older members of the population. Researchers [read the full story…]
This week’s British Medical Journal features a review of depression in later life. The authors bring together recent systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and randomised controlled trials to summarise best current knowledge about the diagnosis and management of patients who develop depression in later life. The review addresses the following questions: What is late life depression and [read the full story…]
Older people who suffer from depression and executive dysfunction experience significant levels of disability and often don’t respond well to conventional drug treatments. This randomised controlled trial conducted by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York State, attempted to find out if problem-solving therapy is better than supportive therapy for reducing disability in older [read the full story…]
A randomised controlled trial published in the Archives of General Psychiatry has found that problem-solving therapy is a useful treatment alternative for elderly people with depression and executive dysfunction who do not respond well to conventional drug treatments. The trial randomised 221 patients to either problem-solving therapy (PST) or supportive therapy (ST) and followed them [read the full story…]
