The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jul 2010
The impact of subcortical white matter disease on mood in euthymic older adults: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
Clinical depression in the elderly is associated with cerebral small vessel disease. It is less certain whether the endorsement of depressive symptoms in the absence of clinical depression, relatively common in euthymic older adults, is also associated with white matter damage. The majority of studies exploring this issue have produced mixed results, perhaps due, in part, to differences in defining the threshold for depression, notating vascular risk factors, and/or the neuroimaging tools used to quantify white matter damage. We aimed to address these issues with non-demented euthymic older adults. ⋯ These findings demonstrate an association between white matter damage and the endorsement of depressive symptoms in euthymic older adults and suggest that DTI may be more sensitive to this damage than T2-WMH in an aging cohort with multiple vascular risk factors.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jul 2010
Prevalence and correlates of poor self-rated health in the United States: the national elder mistreatment study.
Despite its subjective nature, self-report of health status is strongly correlated with long-term physical morbidity and mortality. Among the most reliable predictors of self-reported poor health is older age. In younger adult populations, the second reliable predictor of reported poor health is the experience of domestic and other interpersonal violence. However, very little research exits on the connection between elder mistreatment and self-reports of poor health. The aim of this study was to examine the level of, and correlates for, poor self-rated health in a community sample of older adults with particular emphasis on elder mistreatment history, demographics, and social dependency variables. ⋯ Results suggest that poor health is common among older adults. This study also identified correlates of poor health that may be useful in identification of those in need of intervention.