Background: The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of episodes of DSM-IV major depression, as well as their identification rates, in elderly inpatients in a general hospital in Greece.
Methods: 200 selected patients, 65 years old and over, hospitalized in Surgery and Internal Medicine Departments, were assessed for major depression over a period of 12 months (October 2006-November 2007) by means of SCID-I/P, HADS, BDI and GDS-15. During the same period, liaison calls from the same departments were evaluated and findings were compared.
Results: When psychiatric screening was performed, 28 patients (14%) were diagnosed as suffering from a major depressive episode. During the same period, there were only 20 liaison calls from the same departments for patients over 65 years old, from which 4 patients were found to be suffering from major depression. Comparison between the two periods showed significant underestimation of depression. All psychometric scales detected depression sufficiently.
Conclusions: In general hospital elderly inpatients, depression still remains underestimated. Depression symptom scales could be used as routine tests for screening major depression.