Eldery Depression
Most of us don't think twice about the elderly being depressed but it's a serious problem in that segment of our population. Of the 35 million adults in the United States over the age of 65, 2 million of them suffer serious forms of depression and about 5 million have less severe forms of the illness. That figures out to a whopping twenty percent of the elderly population!
As we age, our brain changes and that includes the neurotransmitters responsible for carrying signals from the brain to the rest of the body. These neurotransmitters are the key factor in depression; doctors think that when they malfunction, depression sets in. Patients with depression always have faulty neurotransmitters but people without depression have healthy ones. As people age, their brain changes and this may be the cause for depression in patients that are elderly but otherwise fairly healthy and have everything to look forward to.
Medications may also trigger depression by affecting the brain's neurotransmitters. Older people are often on several different medications for a variety of conditions or to prevent disease and these medications can interact to affect their chemical balance. The medicines can interact with each other, too, to cause the imbalance.
While a chemical imbalance is the main cause of depression, the circumstances in one’s life can aggravate it. Older people are forced to deal with moss of mobility and independence, failing health, loss of a career or friends and family. Many of them have trouble adjusting to retirement and lack a sense of purpose or suffer through the loss of a beloved spouse or pet. These factors can trigger the chemical imbalance that is the physical cause of depression.
Most depressed elderly people don’t seek help without encouragement. In the era that most our elderly were raised, depression and mental illness were considered shameful as well as signs of character weakness. Many seniors live in busy, understaffed nursing homes with minimal care and attention or are relatively isolated-a perfect recipe for untreated depression and suffering.
If elderly friend or family member doesn't respond to a joke or a hug, has no interest in their favorite hobby, has lost their appetite or frequently mentions that the world would be better without them, get them to a physician as soon as possible. Depression also makes physical problems such as arthritis or chronic headaches worse, affects sleep patterns and energy levels and doesn’t necessarily manifest itself in sadness.
