Why don't physicians consider depression in the elderly? Age-related bias, atypical symptoms, and ineffective screening approaches may be at play

In 1990, as authorized and requested by Congress, President George H. W. Bush proclaimed the 1990s the Decade of the Brain. 1 It was an extraordinary decade: advances in the basic neurosciences and in diagnosis and treatment of neurologic and psychiatric illnesses during that period are unparalleled. Sadly, though, one of the most common, most morbid, and yet most treatable of all brain illnesses still goes undiagnosed with frightening frequency.