Depression may be underdiagnosed in elderly blacks
A prescription to buy Canadian Effexor can help people of all ages fight major depressive disorder.
A prescription to buy Canadian Effexor can help people of all ages fight major depressive disorder. This disease can compound other health conditions for older people, including diabetes, arthritis and heart failure, according to medical experts. However, when broken down by ethnic groups, elderly African Americans are less likely than whites or Hispanics to be diagnosed with depression, according to researchers from Rutgers University.
Based on findings that 6.6 percent of seniors in the U.S. experience an episode of major depression every year, the study team reviewed the medical data of almost 34,000 Medicare beneficiaries and found that the rate of depression among African Americans was 4.2 percent. By comparison, the rates for whites and Hispanics were 6.4 and 7.2 percent, respectively. The incidence for all other groups combined was 3.8 percent, as published in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Efforts are needed to reduce the burden of undetected and untreated depression and to identify the barriers that generate disparities in detection and treatment," said the researchers, as quoted by Drugs.com. They added that universal screening, improvements in access to care in minority neighborhoods and increases in reimbursements for the treatment of depression may help.
About 30 percent of cases of depression diagnosed in adults every year are classified as "severe," according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
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