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Psychotherapy has the potential to address the health, social and inter-personal problems associated with ageing and to help elderly people take an active part in managing depression. The well-described psychological treatments available for the treatment of depressive illness in older people include cognitive behavioural therapies and interpersonal psychotherapy. Evidence for the efficacy of these therapies comes from a limited number of randomised controlled trials, including trials of care management interventions in primary care. However, there is a need for further evaluation of psychotherapy with clinically representative groups of depressed older people, particularly those with severe depression and age-related changes such as cerebrovascular disease and executive dysfunction. There is also scope for the further evaluation of psychological treatments in the prevention of depression in at-risk groups of older people. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Original publication

DOI

10.1002/9780470669600.ch87

Type

Chapter

Book title

Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry: Third Edition

Publication Date

02/12/2010

Pages

543 - 551