Daniel W O'Connor

..A companion article considers factors contributing to general practitioners' (GPs') recognition of major depressive episode when it was present...

..A clinical file review was conducted of clozapine use in three aged psychiatry services in Melbourne, Australia, to compare its safety and tolerability with findings reported in the literature...

..Previous studies suggest that antipsychotic medications are often unnecessary and can be withdrawn without ill effects. Depression, in contrast, is believed to be under-recognized and under-treated...

..As a check on age-related bias, we now compare responses to CIDI's depression screening questions with responses to subsequent, simpler questions about other depressive symptoms...

..Psychosocial treatments are defined here as strategies derived from one of three psychologically oriented paradigms (learning theory, unmet needs and altered stress thresholds)...

..This paper explores the possibility that complex interviews present a special challenge to older respondents and thereby exaggerate the decline in mental disorder with age...

..This paper provides a systematic review of selected experimental studies of the effectiveness of psychosocial treatments in reducing psychological symptoms in dementia (e.g. anxiety, depression, irritability and social withdrawal)...

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..Before concluding that scales present a fairer picture of aged mental health, it is important to check if scores are inflated by items that might reflect normal involutional changes in cognition, energy and social role...

..Functional mental disorders almost certainly rise in frequency in advanced old age, often in conjunction with dementia...

..To map the size and distribution of publicly funded aged psychiatry (psychogeriatric) services in Australia and New Zealand in 2003...

..Psychotic symptoms in the elderly arise in mood disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, and delirium...

..This and the preceding article in this issue examine (a) factors responsible for older patients' decision to report depressive symptoms to their doctor and (b) general practitioners' (GPs') recognition of depression when it was present...

..This cluster randomized controlled trial sought to determine whether multidisciplinary specialist mental health consultation was more effective than care as usual in treating the depression of aged care residents with dementia...

..However, these interventions are frequently not implemented in nursing homes due to staffing constraints. This study explores the potential of volunteers to further assist staff...

..Little is known of the relative effectiveness and tolerability of the two placements in the treatment of elderly, severely depressed inpatients...

..The current study will investigate the effect of individualised activities based on the Montessori methodology administered by family carers in residential care...

..Negative experiences have been described in an earlier paper. This paper focuses on what study participants considered to be the positive aspects of their time in hospital...

..This project compared verbal communication and prescribed psychiatric medication of Greek and Italian residents with dementia in ethno-specific and mainstream residential care...

..To investigate the efficacy and tolerability of transdermal estrogen patches for the adjunctive treatment of aggressive behavior in male patients with advanced dementia...

..The communication of persons with dementia and limited English language proficiency in residential care is an area that has received little attention in the research literature...

..If energy levels are kept low to make treatment safer, the result might be that patients' recovery is delayed. We report here on changes in prescribed energy over a course of six unilateral treatments...

..The aim of the current study is to test if personalized one-to-one interaction activities based on Montessori principles will improve agitation, affect, and engagement more than a relevant control condition...

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..The aim of the current study is to test if personalised one-to-one interaction activities based on Montessori principles will reduce the frequency of behavioural symptoms of dementia significantly more than a relevant control condition...

..Further research into its endocrine and metabolic side effects is needed...

..It was intended that such a summary would provide a useful clinical aid when assessing patients with behavioral symptoms and a starting point for undertaking research in this area...

..This paper focuses on the evidence of trauma and PTSD associated with admission to an aged psychiatry ward...

..To review studies that examined the impact of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on cognitive functioning in depressed older people...

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..The aim of the current study is to test the effectiveness of topically applied pure lavender oil in reducing actual counts of challenging behaviours in nursing home residents...

..The mixed results of this study contrast with those of Mackinnon and Mulligan...

..The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and short-term course of depression and anxiety in a sample of hospitalized, medically unwell older adults, using both a symptom measure and a diagnostic instrument...

..CONCLUSION: Subject to the usual caveats inherent in studies with small sample size, this pilot phase 2 study supports further investigation of this novel treatment strategy using a metal-protein-attenuating compound...

..Depressive symptoms occur in approximately one-third of stroke patients. We sought to evaluate whether an integrated model of stroke care and secondary prevention reduced depressive symptomatology in stroke survivors...

..The overall pattern of results indicates a staging of working-memory impairment in early Alzheimer's disease...

..Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data is revealing links between cognition, brain amyloid burden, structural brain changes, biomarkers, and lifestyle...

..This paper describes the recruitment of the cohort and gives information about the study methodology, baseline demography, diagnoses, medical comorbidities, medication use, and cognitive function of the participants...

..These new findings demonstrate that cognitive deficits and structural brain changes play important roles in serious depression and suggest that early and adequate treatment of major depression should be paramount...