Ageing and trajectories of depressive symptoms in community-dwelling men and women.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate age-related patterns of depressive symptoms in older men and women and to identify their determinants.

Methods: The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to prospectively assess depressive symptoms in 1059 men and 1531 women, enrolled in a French representative population-based cohort (PAQUID study) and followed over a period of 20 years. Using a group-based trajectory method with an accelerated longitudinal design, we modelled the course of depressive symptoms between 65 and 104 years of age and examined associations between trajectory patterns and baseline socio-demographic and health variables.

Plasma eicosapentaenoic acid is inversely associated with severity of depressive symptomatology in the elderly: data from the Bordeaux sample of the Three-City Study.

Background: Depressive symptoms are commonly observed in elderly people, and nutritional factors such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been proposed as potential protective determinants of depressive disorders.

Objective: The objective was to analyze the relation between plasma fatty acids and severity of depressive symptomatology (DS) in French elderly community dwellers.

Design: The study population (mean age: 74.

Evolution of prevalence of depressive symptoms and antidepressant use between 1988 and 1999 in a large sample of older French people: Results from the personnes agées quid study.

Objectives: To describe the evolution of prevalence of depressive symptoms and antidepressant use between 1988 and 1999 in a large representative sample of older community-dwelling French people.

Design: Prospective cohort designed in 1988/89 to study cerebral and functional aging.

Setting: Urban and rural communities in southwestern France.

[Descriptive epidemiology and risk factors of depression in the elderly].

Depressive symptoms are frequent among the elderly, and seriously impair their quality of life. The prevalence of depressive symptoms is difficult to evaluate on account of several epidemiological problems, such as the various definitions of "depression", which often prevent comparisons between studies. The second major difficulty is related to the selection bias due to differences in populations studied, and to the high risk of refusal to participate among the depressed subjects.