A Hidden Disease: In Older Blacks, Depression Often Goes Untreated
July 11, 2000 -- Although depression is a common and troubling problem among the elderly, a new study suggests that its symptoms are being overlooked in many older black people. Elderly white people, the study found, are more than three times as likely to be prescribed anti-depressant drugs as elderly blacks.
"We feel that the recognition of depression in African-Americans by physicians is the critical factor," study author Dan Blazer, MD, PhD, tells WebMD. "It's very likely that there are African-Americans out there that could greatly benefit from these medications who are not being prescribed them."
In the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Blazer and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., report the results of a 10 year survey of more than 4,000 people age 65 and older.
In 1986, when the survey began, more than twice as many elderly whites as blacks were using antidepressants. By 1996, almost three times as many whites as blacks were taking the medications. Among all the elderly people surveyed, antidepressant use increased from 4% in the mid-'80s to 11% in the mid-'90s.
While the trend toward increasing antidepressant use is not surprising given the greater availability of drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft, Blazer says, the difference among the races is striking.
There are probably many reasons for the difference, he says, perhaps including a reluctance on the part of older blacks to takeVital Information:antidepressants, to understand symptoms of depression, or to admit to having them.
"Misconceptions of clinical depression as a weakness of character or a normal [part] of aging, rather than a treatable illness, are common," says George S. Zubenko, MD, PhD, who reviewed the study for WebMD. Zubenko is a professor of psychiatry and biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
A study that Zubenko conducted a few years ago suggested that older, depressed blacks responded better to antidepressants than whites. But further investigation found that, unlike whites with depression, the majority of blacks were never even treated for their depression until they required hospitalization.