Psychosocial factors in later life depression.

The purpose of this paper has been to assess the psycho-social factors in the onset and course of late life depressions. The sample consisted of 100 consecutive depressed in-patients, over 65 year-olds and 100 consecutive cases under 65. Our findings indicate that the number of precipitating factors was higher in the elderly group in comparison with the control group. Patients whose depression comes on in old age experienced more life events before the illness than those whose depression began under the age of 65. The clinical course of the depressive illness tends to be related to the precipitating event, patients experience psycho-social factors having longer depressive episodes.