GERIATRIC DEPRESSION - AGE-OF-ONSET AND DEMENTIA

Age of depression onset was studied in 183 consecutively hospitalized elderly patients with major depression. Patients with both depression and dementia had onset of depression at a significantly later age than patients with depression alone. Depressives with reversible dementia had age of onset comparable to that of depressives with irreversible dementia. These findings suggest that late-onset depression is a heterogeneous syndrome and includes a considerable number of patients who develop depression as part of a dementing illness.