Staying With A Medicine Helps Older People Avoid Relapsing Into Depression, , Health News Feed, a Service of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Reports on a study concluding that medications are most useful in preventing relapse of depression in late life after it’s gotten better. The relapse rate found in those on medicine was about one in three, whether or not they were also in psychotherapy. Whereas the relapse rate found for those on psychotherapy alone was about two in three, twice the rate of the first group. Quoting Constantine Lyketsos, a specialist in geriatric psychiatry, this report indicates that the study is significant, because depression in elderly people is a growing but often unrecognized and untreated problem, and even with treatment relapse is common.
