Fazale Rabbani, Ijaz Gul, Mian Mukhtar-ul Haq, Adil Afridi.
Depression in Elderly and the Impact of Family Systems.
J Med Sci Jan ;26(2):169-73.

Objectives: To find out the frequency of depression in the elderly its association with the type of family system they are living in. Material & Methods: A Cross- sectional descriptive study has been conducted in the Psychiatry outpatient department of Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, from August 2014 to Feb 2015. Geriatric Depression Scale has been administered on elderly people (60 plus) consulting the hospital. Depression intensity was assessed using Geriatric Depression Scale. Age, demographics and gender has been recorded. Results: Out of 345 patients, mostly patients have the age range of 60-69 years. Fifty percent of the subjects were male and forty-nine percent were female. 56.8% subjects were living in joint family and 43.2% were living in nuclear family. The frequency of depression was found to be 34.2%. The elderly living in atomic family framework were found to be more suffering from depression as compare to those living in joint family system. Conclusion: Living in a nuclear family system is a strong risk factor of depression in the elderly. The prevalence of depression in the elderly population in our study was high and needs attention

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com