Physical Illness and Depression in Older Adults: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Practice / Edition 1

by Gail M. Williamson, David R. Shaffer, Patricia A. Parmelee

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306462696
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	08/31/2000
Series:	The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology
Edition description:	2000
Pages:	370
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Williamson, Gail M.; Schaffer, David R.; Parmelee, Patricia A.

Table 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.

Editorial Reviews

Williamson and all claim to sample research from various disciplines on the intersection between physical illness and depression in older people, but in fact all the contributors are from either psychiatry or psychology. Covering risk factors, conditioning variables and outcomes, and diagnosis and treatment, they discuss such topics as depression and disability; depression, immune function, and health; and the relationship of major depressive disorder to Alzheimer's Disease. The goal of the collection is to stimulate further research. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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