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Psychological interventions are effective for late-life depression.
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There is little evidence that one type of intervention is more efficacious than another.
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More research is needed to examine moderators of treatment, including age, depression severity, medical illness, and cognitive impairment.
Psychological Treatment of Late-Life Depression
Section snippets
Key points
Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies
Cognitive and behavioral therapies (CBTs) are a group of evidence-based treatments that combine behavioral and cognitive techniques and have demonstrated efficacy for a wide variety of psychiatric problems, including depression.10 Cognitive therapy developed by Beck11 is based on the theory that how we interpret situations impacts our mood and behaviors. Treatment is designed to teach individuals to identify maladaptive or distorted cognitions and learn to challenge them so as to reduce
Discussion
Consistent with prior reviews and meta-analyses, the results indicate that psychological interventions are effective for the treatment of late-life depression. A total of 17 randomized studies examining CBT, PST, IPT, reminiscence therapy (RT), and BPD were evaluated and all therapies resulted in reduction of depressive symptoms. Given that older adults are generally accepting of psychological treatments,7, 8 it is promising that there are a variety of interventions to choose from. Not only was
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2020, Psychotherapy for the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse: A How-To Guide for Evidence-Based Practice, Third EditionLate life depression: nursing actions that can help
2019, Perspectives in Psychiatric CareHelpful approaches to older people experiencing mental health problems: a critical review of models of mental health care
2019, European Journal of Ageing
Disclosures: None.