Clinical and phenomenological comparisons of late-onset and early-onset depression

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the relationship between age at onset of first depressive episode and clinical features in elderly depressed patients. METHOD: They used data on age at onset and clinical features in 246 elderly depressed patients treated at the National Institute of Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Depression in Later Life, located at Duke University. RESULTS: Two variables--loss of interest and number of depressive episodes--were related to age at onset in all analyses. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the hypothesis that apathy is more prominent in late-onset than in early-onset depression.