Beating the senior blues

We all deserve our golden years. After decades navigating life’s twists and turns, overcoming adversity, and working diligently to achieve success for ourselves and our families, we all should be afforded the opportunity in our late 60s, throughout our 70s and 80s, and well beyond, to relax and enjoy life to its fullest.

Unfortunately, the illness of depression robs many senior citizens of that ideal. Due in large part to the challenges seniors must face as they journey through the aging process, older Americans are particularly susceptible to clinical depression.

A National Institute of Mental Health study found that 2 to 3 percent of elderly people living in the general community – not in hospitals or nursing homes – may be clinically depressed. However, 8 to 10 percent of seniors who visit primary care physicians may fit the diagnosis for clinical depression, and between 20 and 25 percent of older people in hospitals have depression. One in three senior citizens living in nursing homes may be depressed, the study found.

Despite those troubling statistics, Sherry Myers, a registered nurse at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore, says it’s vitally important to remember one underlying fact: Depression is not a normal part of the aging process.

“Sometimes seniors can get into a bad rut that can bring on depression,” Myers says. “It’s definitely curable. We see success stories every day.”

Depression is caused by a change in brain chemistry, usually triggered by circumstances in the environment, says Susan Levy, M.D., Levindale’s vice president of Medical Affairs.

“It’s a sadness, a loss of interest in activities, a change in sleeping or eating patterns,” Levy says. “Anything over two weeks is persistent. Just having a bad day doesn’t cut it.”

So how best to ensure that seniors who are suffering from depression get the care they need? The key, Levy says, is trying to diagnose it as early as possible. “It’s important to incorporate screening for depression as part of ongoing health care maintenance.”

In many cases, senior citizens do not realize they are clinically depressed. Common symptoms to look for can include insomnia; decreased appetite; increased lethargy; irritability; talk of suicide; dramatic weight fluctuations; paranoia; and memory loss or confusion.

Levindale takes a number of approaches to treating seniors with depression. “In the outpatient program, really throughout Levindale, we do group therapy,” Myers says. “When people are in a group of their peers and they can talk about their issues and find out that they’re not alone, it’s very helpful. We also do individual and family therapy.”

Before seniors in Levindale’s outpatient program are discharged, a detailed plan is created to help them avoid slipping back into depression. “We want to ensure they don’t go back to the same exact thing that they were doing,” Myers says.

Battling depression often can be an exhausting and discouraging endeavor. But Levy says the outcome usually is a positive one. “Like many diseases, it is a disease that will cycle,” she says. Ninety-five percent of the time, people can live happy, healthy lives.”

For more information about outpatient psychiatric services at Levindale, call 410-601-WELL (9355).