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Aging is inevitable-A "psychological recession" is not . . . As I go about my daily life, I read and hear about the sometimes scary things that are happening to other people. As the saying goes, bad news sells newspapers. But I u- ally can take some solace in reasoning that this bad stuff assuredly will not occur in my life. After reading this book, however, one message has gotten through-I cannot d- miss "those" older people described in the various chapters as being dissimilar to me. After all, "old person" is a term that can be applied to me in a few more years. On this point, I once heard the following rhetorical question applied to the prejudice actions of the TV character Archie Bunker: "What would he say about "those" Puerto Ricans, if, on his next birthday, he knew that he would become a Puerto Rican?" As to aging, we best pay close attention because we soon will be "those" elders. This is why the alarming facts of this book-that our elders often are experiencing elevatedlevelsofphysicalillnessesanddepression-grabbedmebytheproverbialthroat.
List of contents
Physical Illness and Depression in Older Adults.- Physical Illness and Depression in Older Adults.- Risk Factors.- Depression and Disability.- Vascular Disease and Depression.- Pain, Functional Disability, and Depressed Affect.- The Role of Everyday Events in Depressive Symptoms for Older Adults.- Caregiving and Detrimental Mental and Physical Health Outcomes.- Conditioning Variables and Outcomes.- Depression, Immune Function, and Health in Older Adults.- Quality of Life, Depression, and End-of-Life Attitudes and Behaviors.- The Activity Restriction Model of Depressed Affect.- We Should Measure Change-and Here's How.- Diagnosis and Treatment.- Depression and Physical Illness in Older Primary Care Patients.- The Relationship of Major Depressive Disorder to Alzheimer's Disease.- Pharmacotherapy of Geriatric Depression.- A Hope-based Group Treatment for Depressed Older Adult Outpatients.- Complex Unity and Tolerable Uncertainty.- Summary.- Physical lllness and Depression in Elderly Adults.
Summary
With people living longer, often with chronic illnesses and disabilities, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how depression, disability, and physical illnesses are interrelated, the mechanisms underlying these interrelationships, and their implications for diagnosis and treatment.
