Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Trakya Ünivresitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, EDİRNE
Trakya Ãœniversitesi SaÄŸlık Hizmetleri MYO, EDÄ°RNE Objective: To measure depressive symptomatology in patients undergoing outpatient geriatric assessment, using a Turkish version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-T). Methods: Seventy-nine geriatric patients participated to the outpatient clinics of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the University of Trakya Medical School were evaluated in a 1-year period. All patients completed the 30-item GDS-T. Fisher’s x[sup2] analysis, Pearson x[sup2] analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were used for the evaluation of the data. An optimal cut-off was identified which was the total score on the GDS with the highest combined sensitivity and specificity. Results: We included 79 geriatric patients (60 women and 19 men) with a mean age of 71.20 ± 4.67 years (Min=65, Max=84). Using the GDS, 35 subjects (44.30%) were diagnosed with depression. The range of total GDS-T scores in the overall sample was from 0 to 30, with a mean (SD) of 10.22 ± 4.92. In this study, we determined that the 4, 6, 16, 18, 24, 25 and 30th questions were important to distinguish patients with depression. Conclusions: GDS-T version is efficient for diagnosis of depressed patients. Shortening of the questionnaire is only useful for shortening of time necessary but the problem concerned with diagnosis can be occurred. Keywords : Geriatric Depression Scale, Depression, Elderly.