The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · May 2008
Outcomes and predictors of late-life depression trajectories in older primary care patients.
The naturalistic outcomes of depression in older primary care patients have been poorly characterized. The authors sought to identify depressive trajectories over 2 years and to examine specified outcome predictors. ⋯ The "real-world" outcomes of patients with more severe depressive symptoms are strikingly poor. Given the diverse outcomes of those with subsyndromal to mild forms of minor depression, clinicians might focus treatments on those at highest risk of poor outcome, i.e., those with greater depressive symptoms and medical burden and lower psychiatric functioning and social support. Preventive interventions research might focus on developing treatments to mitigate potentially modifiable risks such as deficits in social support.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · May 2008
Facial emotion recognition deficit in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease.
A deficit in facial emotion recognition was described in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). However, this issue has been underexplored in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). Thus, the authors aimed to determine whether a deficit in facial emotion recognition is present in a-MCI phase and whether this is intensity dependent. A secondary aim was to investigate relationships between facial emotion recognition and cognitive performances. ⋯ Emotion recognition progresses from a deficit in low-intensity fearful facial recognition in a-MCI phase to a deficit in all intensities and emotions in mild AD. This could be an effect of the progressive degeneration of brain structures modulating emotional processing. An early detection of emotional impairment in MCI phases of dementia may have clinical implications.