Recognizing how depression symptoms in older people are often missed, many healthcare providers are learning to identify and treat depression. If a diagnosis of depression is made, treatment with depression medication and/or psychotherapy will help the depressed person return to a happier, more fulfilling life. In fact, research has shown that combining psychotherapy with antidepressants appears to provide maximum treatment benefit. In one study, approximately 80 percent of older adults with depression recovered with combination treatment. The combination treatment was also found to be more effective than either treatment alone at reducing recurrences of depression.
Psychotherapy has been shown to be useful in older people who cannot or will not take depression medications. In addition, psychotherapy alone has been shown to prolong periods of good health free from depression, although not as much as depression medications and psychotherapy combined.
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