Are frailty and depression linked by inflammatory mechanisms?
In a themed edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry devoted to depression, Gatz (American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2004; 12: 1-5) makes the point that like several geriatric syndromes, such as gait disturbance and depression too may be a marker of frailty. Not only is there an overlap in the symptoms which define frailty and those of depression (for example exhaustion, weight loss, slowing and decreased activities) but new research suggests that cytokine-mediated processes, perhaps themselves linked to ageing and accumulated diseases, lead to inflammatory processes which can precipitated and fuel depression. Several papers explore the fascinating bi-directional relationship between somatic illness and depression. Screening for depression Screening instruments for depression are popular. How good are they? Two papers from the same journal provide rather contrasting results. In one from the US, Watson et al (International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2004; 19:
