13 Nov For Both Men and Women, Aging Brings Increased Depression
Dr. Chui
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Helena Chui, Ph.D.
CPsychol Lecturer Division of Psychology
University of Bradford
Bradford England
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Chui: It is debatable whether psychological well-being improves or declines with age. Findings of the age-related changes in psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms, are not unequivocal. Some studies have found that people stay pretty stable in terms psychological well-being until late life. Other studies have found otherwise. My recent publication reports the findings using a 15-year longitudinal study from Australia. Results showed that as people get older, depressive symptoms increase. Both men and women reported increasingly more depressive symptoms as they aged, with women initially starting with more depressive symptoms than men. However, men showed a faster rate of increase in symptoms so that the difference in the genders was reversed at around the age of 80.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Chui: The first thing is, I think we should celebrate the success of longevity that we have in most of the developed countries. We are in a period of unprecedented success in terms of people living longer than ever. However, it seems that although physically we are living longer, something is going wrong with old age that as people get older and approach death, they are getting more depressed. The findings of my study call for mental health support to enable people to age well, both physically and psychologically.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Chui: My study is the first to report that depressive symptoms increase until very old age, i.e. beyond the age of 85. However, with the data from the Australian study, we cannot ascertain what is the reason for the increase in depressive symptoms. The likely suspects are poor health, bereavement, impairment, and disability. Future research should look into what are the reasons for the increase in depressive symptoms in old age. The next step is then to devise effective interventions to maintain and hopefully improve psychological well-being in old age.
Citation:
Psychol Aging. 2015 Oct 26. [Epub ahead of print]
Chui H, Gerstorf D, Hoppmann CA, Luszcz MA.
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Helena Chui, Ph.D. (2015). For Both Men and Women, Aging Brings Increased Depression
Last Updated on November 13, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD