ABSTRACT
High prevalence rates of depression among the elderly are reported in many studies, but, as L. F. Jarvik has noted, there is considerable confusion about the terminology and the type of depression identified in the literature and there is considerable variance in the details of diagnostic procedures and symptom counts from one study to another. This chapter examines the relationships among depressive symptoms, clinical diagnosis of depression, and chronic disability in a sample of elderly persons who were interviewed twice with an interval of 4 to 5 years between interviews. It discusses the term demoralized to refer to persons receiving high scores on symptom scales developed from items in the two interview schedules that provided the data, and suggests that the concept of chronic demoralization is especially appropriate for certain elderly persons. The findings indicate that the high prevalence of demoralization is largely due to chronicity of demoralization and that incidence may be much lower.
