37 Poor treatment adherence is especially common in the elderly and may be both overuse and underuse.38 Case study A case study, modeled after a real event, may help to illustrate some common features making depression in late life in primary care an appropriate target for intervention. An elderly individual, typically a man (we will call him Mr Smith), is a 78-year-old widower, formerly a small business owner, who has lived alone since his wife died 4 years ago. He has an extensive medical history including

pyloric stenosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and prostate and bladder cancer. Six weeks ago, Mr Smith underwent extensive abdominal Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and. bladder surgery. Since returning home, Mr Smith has “given up hope on everything. ” He is no longer interested in reading, IV, or playing cards with his friends. He wishes he could sleep better but spends much of the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical night awake, worrying about his health

and ruminating about his past. During the day, he eats sporadically, and finds himself too tired and lethargic to keep Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical his home tidy. A proud man, he views his messy house, like his decaying body, as symbolic of how little his life is now valued. He wonders daily whether he should kill himself and, if he did, who would care. He has decided that if he does kill himself the best way is with a gun. He has a rifle, left over from his hunting days, that he keeps in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the bedroom closet. The ammunition is in a desk drawer. Mr Smith is somewhat ashamed of these thoughts and keeps most of them to himself. At his doctor’s visit, Mr

Smith mentions only that he is having trouble sleeping and eating and feels a little lethargic. His selleckchem physician responds that a loss of energy is normal given Mr Smith ‘s age, his health problems, and the stress he has experienced. He is concerned about Mr Smith’s appetite, however, and orders additional different diagnostic tests. At home that night, Mr Smith lies in the dark envisioning an endless set of painful Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical tests and procedures leading to nowhere but death. In the morning, he takes the gun down from AV-951 the shelf and loads it with ammunition. It sits on the desk for a week, always beckoning as an easier alternative to doing and being nothing. One night, Mr Smith writes a final note to his sons and ends his life. Perhaps the most important feature of this fictional case is that depression remains unrecognized by the patient and the primary care physician who provides the patient’s care. In part, symptoms of sadness, so predominant in younger cases of depression, are not present, but instead the patient conveys anhedonia or lack of interest in previously pleasurable activities coupled with reduced functioning in areas of personal and social responsibilities. Other symptoms are somatic and, given competing medical illnesses, may not be linked to the other symptoms of depression, so that the physician may miss the diagnosis.