Preventing depression in later life: state of the art and science circa 2011

Abstract

Unipolar major depression is among the leading contributors to the global burden of illness-related disability, and is predicted to be the greatest contributor to illness burden by 2030. It is a matter of public health significance to identify people at high risk for depression and/or already mildly symptomatic, and to discover ways of implementing timely and rational risk reduction strategies to preempt major depression. In this article, the published literature is reviewed to summarize what is known about depression prevention in older adults, and, ultimately, to inform future research.