Recovering the ability to function socially in elderly depressed patients: a prospective, controlled trial

Among elderly patients with depressive disorders, restrictions of the ability to function socially apparently linger long after the depressive symptoms abate. In a 16-week long, prospective, controlled study on 30 elderly, depressed patients who were still living at home (response rate, 93.3%), we wanted to find out whether recovering the ability to function socially takes a different course through integrative treatment than it does subsequent to purely psychopharmacological therapy. We used the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale (SASS) to measure our results. Both forms of therapy did afford a relatively rapid reduction of depressive symptoms, however, the integrative treatment not only led to a more expeditious reduction of the BDI score [in the fourth week (P < 0.05) and starting with the eighth week (P < 0.01)] but was also the only one that led to a significant improvement in the ability to function socially [in the 12th week, P < 0.05; in the 16th week, P < 0.01]. These findings could contribute to improved treatment and rehabilitation of elderly patients, thereby prolonging the periods in their lives in which they can live independently.