Refusal to eat is not a sign of depression in nursing home residents
19 July 2002
Nursing home residents who refuse to eat but have no other behavioural problems are unlikely to have depression or suicidal ideation, an Australian study indicates.
The study, presented at the Australian Society of Geriatric Medicine's annual scientific meeting in Darwin last month, was one of the first to rigorously examine residents clinically on such a large scale to shed light on the relationship between food refusal and depression.
'The point of the study was to look at the issue of whether refusal to eat or take medications may be a sign of someone giving up on life because there have been concerns that there may be more suicides in nursing homes than we realise,' Dr Brian Draper, senior staff specialist in old age psychiatry at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, said.
But concerns that food refusal may indicate underlying depression were not borne out in his study of 360 residents in 11 nursing homes, according to Dr Draper.
Such a relationship could only be identified in 6 residents, he said.
'What we found was that, for most people who were not eating, this behaviour was related to the dementing process,' Dr Draper said.
About 45 per cent of the residents had depressive symptoms, but only about 20 per cent were clinically depressed.
Nearly 27 per cent were classified as food refusers, 35 per cent as aggressive resistant, 5.4 per cent as behaviourally disturbed, and about one-third were non-symptomatic with little harmful behaviour.
The behaviourally disturbed group engaged in many harmful behaviours and showed signs of depression and psychosis.
Last Reviewed: 23 July 2002
- 1. Medical Observer Weekly 19/7/02
