Key result
Late-onset depression is linked to more physical comorbidities than early-onset, notably ~4x higher hypertension rates.
Why the study?
Late-onset depression differs from early-onset depression in clinical features, physical comorbidities, cognitive impairment, and cerebrovascular abnormalities, prompting evaluation to identify comorbid physical disorders in late-onset depression.
Cross-Sectional (n=60)
Absolute Event Rate: 56.6% vs 13.3%
Late-onset depression is associated with a significantly higher burden of physical comorbidities, particularly cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, compared to early-onset depression.
Physical comorbidity screening may warrant consideration in late-onset depression; leaves open causal pathways pending prospective studies.
BACKGROUND: Late-onset depression differs significantly from early-onset depression according to clinical features, physical comorbidities, cognitive impairment, and cerebrovascular abnormalities, which suggest that these might have differing etiopathological pathways toward the depressive phenotype. AIM: The aim of the study was to identify comorbid physical disorders with late-onset depression. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in inpatients of the Department of Psychiatry during a period of 18 months. A study consisted of 60 patients of first depressive episode diagnosed using International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria, segregated 2 different groups of Early onset depression (between 40 and 65 years) and late-onset depression (LOD) (>65 years) with 30 patients each. RESULTS: In LOD group, predominant comorbidities were hypertension 56.6%, cerebrovascular disease 36.6%, diabetes 33.3%, cardiovascular disease 23.3%, and anaemia 23.3%, followed by respiratory illnesses, arthritis, benign prostatic hyperplasia and cirrhosis. While, in early-onset depression group, common comorbidities were hypertension (13.3%), anemia (10%), arthritis (10%), and diabetes (6.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease were the predominant comorbidities in late-onset as well as early onset depression.
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Singh et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Depression (n=60). Late-onset depression (>65 years) vs. Early-onset depression (40-65 years) was evaluated on Hypertension comorbidity. Late-onset depression was associated with a higher prevalence of physical comorbidities compared to early-onset depression, most notably hypertension (56.6% vs 13.3%).
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