AFAR Medical Officer Richard Besdine, MD, tackles the topic of late-life depression in a new blog post on the health section of The Huffington Post, recently renamed "AOL Healthy Living." He highlights the prevalence of depression among older Americans that goes undetected and untreated. As Dr. Besdine emphasizes, depression is not a normal part of the healthy aging process: "It should not be dismissed as an inevitable result of aging or overlooked just because many seniors exhibit different, less obvious symptoms, or don't want to admit feelings of sadness." Older patients have many viable treatment options for mental health care, though these opportunities are many times lesser known or understood because they are not part of mainstream knowledge of depression treatment. Read more about the research behind late-life depression and treatment, and why this should be a real health care priority, in the full article.
This is the fourth post in Dr. Besdine's series on health care and aging on the AOL Healthy Living site. Read all of his articles here.
