Persuasive Essay: Depression In The Elderly

9. Depression in the Elderly

The elderly among us are another high-risk population for depression and its ravages. Underserved by the medical system, the elderly comprise the highest rates of suicide in the country. Too often their plight goes unnoticed as they are often isolated, not in close contact with family or friends that can help them through their struggles.

The elderly are bombarded by the life changes that plunge otherwise content people into depression. They have often lost multiple loved ones, face leaving their long-time homes and memories, experience the pain and loss of grown children moving away, and go through an incremental loss of their independence, all of which are hard pills to swallow and can lead to emotional instability. They are also at increased risk for depression due to the many other diseases that are contributing factors, diseases that they are statistically more likely to be dealing with in their golden years, often one on top of another. Thyroid problems, cancers, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson 's, and dementia all place one at greater risk of developing diagnosable depression.

Weight loss, apatite changes, fatigue, and sleeping problems come masked as getting older, or a side-effect of a heart condition or chemotherapy, and people don 't recognize when the symptoms go beyond the routine and cross over into true depression. The symptoms in the elderly are less likely to present as sadness and more likely to tend towards a whole host of other possible symptoms, particularly low motivation, lack of energy, and physical ailments such as worsening arthritis and