Aging: Mental Health Overlooked in Care of Elderly Patients

By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Depression and other mental illnesses are common among the elderly, and when they get treatment, it usually comes from their primary care doctors. But a new study suggests that those doctors may devote too little time to talking about those ailments.
When researchers reviewed videotapes of 385 appointments with elderly patients in three separate areas, they found the median time spent discussing mental health was just two minutes.
The study, which appeared in the December issue of The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was led by Ming Tai-Seale of the School of Rural Public Health at Texas A&M.
More than half the patients whose survey responses suggested they were depressed never spoke with their doctors at all about their emotional state. The subject came up in about a fifth of the visits over all.
But even when patients let their doctors know about their problems, the study found, the responses were often ineffective or worse.