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- Title
Sociodemographic correlates of depression and anxiety disorders among physically ill elderly patients.
- Authors
Eissa, Abeer M.; Hassan, Ghada A.M.; Azam, Hanan; Sadek, Hesham A.; El Awam, Israa
- Abstract
About 20% of individuals older than 60 years of age suffer from a mental illness, the most common among them being depressive, cognitive, and anxiety disorders. The prevalence of these disorders and their sociodemographic correlates should be further explored, especially in underdeveloped countries.The aim of this study was to examine for depressive and anxiety disorders in a group of medically ill elderly patients. In addition, this study aimed to describe the sociodemographic background of patients and its correlation with psychiatric symptoms.A total of 273 medical patients older than 60 years of age were recruited from the internal medicine outpatient clinic. Psychiatric assessment was carried out using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) and the diagnosis was made according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV) criteria. Furthermore, cognitive assessment was performed using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and social classification using Fahmy and El-Sherbini’s Scale.44.7% of the study sample had one of the depressive or anxiety disorders, the prevalence of which was higher in patients with more than one medical problem. In addition, the highest prevalence of depression and anxiety was found in patients with heart disease, followed by patients with liver disease, although this was not statistically significant. Finally, there was a significant relationship between female sex and depression and also a highly significant relationship between depression and low socioeconomic status.Depression and anxiety disorders are common among medically ill patients and these may worsen the medical condition and quality of life of these patients. Therefore, psychiatric screening of all medically ill patients with a routine follow-up is highly recommended.
- Publication
Middle East Current Psychiatry, 2013, Vol 20, Issue 2, p73
- ISSN
2090-5408
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1097/01.XME.0000427044.15345.7b