ABSTRACT
Geriatric depressive disorders are health problems with important medical, social, and financial consequences. Geriatric depression causes suffering to patients and their families, exacerbates medical illnesses, and contributes to disability that requires expensive support systems. Although the prevalence of depression does not appear to increase with age (Regier et al., 1988), the highest rates of suicide have been found in men aged 75 years and older (Conwell and Brent, 1995): Psychological autopsy studies of suicides in late life have found that most older suicide victims suffered from a psychiatric illness, usually late-onset depression and that most methods of suicide were violent.
