Resumen

CAPUNAY CHAFLOQUE, José, FIGUEROA ALVARADO, Marcos y VARELA PINEDO, Luis. Depresión en el adulto mayor: Estudio de una serie de pacientes de consultorio externo de medicina en el Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia. Rev Med Hered, oct. 1996, vol.7, no.4, p.172-177. ISSN 1018-130X.

Objective: To establish the prevalence of depression symptoms and major depression in the elderly. Material and methods: A prospective, transversal and descriptive study was carried out including 60 elderly patients of the outpatients clinic of the Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia, between april and may of 1995. Results: We found depression symptoms in 75% of the patients. There was mayor depression in 18.3% of the patients. The most frequent symptoms of depression were: depressive mood, sleep disturbances, loss of energy. Finally we did a revision of the literature about depression in olf patient (Rev Med Hered 1996; 7: 172-177).

Palabras llave: Elderly; depression mayor; outpatients.