Mood disorders in the elderly are a relevant clinical problem associated with high prevalence and frequent co-morbidity with chronic somatic diseases.

Study of clinical traits of depression in elder persons with somatic disorders.

The investigation was entered by 582 persons (women = 391 (67,1%), men = 191 (32,9%)), mean age of women has constituted 67,5 ± 5,8 years, men - 62,1 ± 3,8 years.

Age in women 55 years and higher, in men - 60 years and higher, clinical level of depression according to Beck Inventory more than 22 scores.

Affective disorders were represented by symptom complexes that masked depression and complicated diagnosis. Clinical symptoms in the kind of anhedonia and complaints about anergia dominated (73,6%), whereas depression, melancholy have moved behind and have constituted 26,4%. Psychopathologic disturbances presented against the background of lingering chronically flowing neurological and somatic diseases (cerebral atherosclerosis, brain blood circulation impairment, IHD, HI, respiratory organs’ diseases) in 73,6 %. High risk of emergence of depressive disorders was noticed in widows with low level of education, living in rural area and in persons with somatic diseases. In 32% of probands we have revealed depression that correlated with marital status and feeling of loneliness (p > 0,005). In persons with high level of depression and experiencing feeling of loneliness, risk of suicidal behavioral was higher 2,1 as much.

Study of affective disorders in the elderly allows assessing co-morbidity of somatic and mental disorders, developing tactic of psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological assistance rendering.