Physical Comorbidity and its Impact on Symptom Profile of Depression among Elderly Patients Attending Psychiatry Services of a Tertiary Care Hospital

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of physical comorbidities among elderly patients with depression attending psychiatric services and the secondary aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of physical comorbidities on symptom profile of depression. METHODOLOGY: 140 patients with a diagnosis of depression as per the International Classification of Diseases-10 criteria were evaluated on Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and a physical comorbidity checklist. RESULTS: More than two-third (72.1%) of the patients had at least one physical illness. Out of those with physical comorbidity, more than half (57 out of 101) had at least 2 physical illnesses. The most commonly involved systems were cardiovascular system (n = 68; 48.6%), followed by endocrinological system (27.1%) and ophthalmological system (26.4%). Most common physical comorbidity was hypertension (47.14%), followed by cataract (25.7%) and diabetes mellitus (25%). The presence of any physical comorbidity, presence of hypertension or presence of diabetes mellitus did not influence the manifestations of depression as assessed by GDS-30. CONCLUSION: Elderly patients with depression have high rates of physical comorbidities. Clinicians managing elderly patients with depression must get their patient thoroughly evaluated for the presence of various physical comorbidities.