By Vincent Lim
Late-life depression exerts significant physical and emotional burden on older adults, their families and health care systems.
Studies indicate that older adults face unique challenges in battling depression. Unlike younger individuals with depression, older adults have a decreased likelihood of remission than younger populations, are more prone to suffer from functional disability and are less likely to receive quality mental health care.
For older, Spanish-speaking Latinos, the clinical picture is more complicated. They experience much higher rates of severe depression and disability, and are seven times less likely to receive psychotherapy from a clinical professional.
A project led by María Aranda, associate professor at the USC School of Social Work and a senior scientist with the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, hopes to take a step toward changing the narrative surrounding late-life depression among older ethnic and racial minorities in the United States.
The three-year project supported by a $1.5 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will study the potential benefits of a culturally modified psychosocial intervention for Spanish-speaking Latino patients 55 years of age or older with depression and multiple medical conditions. The institute is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative clinical effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health and health care decisions.