KEY PAPERS IN GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY SERIES EDITOR: ALISTAIR BURNS.

This article built on previous results of the author's experience in the treatment of elderly people with depression admitted under his care in 1949 and 1951. The article presents a followup investigation of a further consecutive series over the age of 60 receiving care in 1966 and 1967. The progress of 92 depressives over the age of 60 after discharge from hospital was compared with that of 81 subjects of an earlier follow up study. On account mainly of earlier and presumably often successful treatment in the community, the recent sample or hospital patients turned out to be more seriously and persistently ill. In spite of this, long-term results were similar to those obtained during an earlier period, possibly because of more effective aftercare and maintenance therapy with antidepressant drugs, which had in the meantime been introduced.