Post- Tania

;Respond to the post bellow ;by comparing your assessment tool to theirs. ;

NOTE: my assessment tool: The patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)

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;For the purpose of this discussion, the assessment tool that shall be ;analyzed is the Geriatric Depression Scale. It is important to note that ;depression in elderly patients is a common problem and this leads to ;significant emotional suffering and loss of quality of life. Depression ;in elderly patients also lead to increase in the risk of physical ;inactivity as well as disability. As elderly persons grow older an get ;to the age of 80 and above, depression becomes prevalent especially if ;they live in nursing homes or if they suffer from dementia (Conradsson, ;Rosendahl, Littbrand, Gustafson, Olofsson & Lovheim, 2013). ;Unfortunately, regardless of the fast that depression is more common ;than dementia in old age, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated ;(Allan, Valkanova & Ebmeier, 2014). It is because of this that there ;is need to have a proper tool for diagnosing depression in geriatric ;patients. The tool should be effective in regard to the assessment ;process and help in the evaluation of treatment in order to monitor ;progress. One such tool is the Geriatric Depression Scale.

; ;The Geriatric Depression Scale is a tool that is used to assess elderly ;patients with a view of establishing whether they are depressed. The ;tool was developed by Yesavage et al. in 1983. At the time it was ;established, it had 30 items. However, 30 items were found to be too ;many to be effective. The items made the tool time consuming for both ;elderly patients as well as clinicians. This necessitated the ;formulation of the GDS-15 which is said to be effective in diagnosing ;depression in elderly patients (Durmaz, Soysal, Ellidokuz & Isik, ;2018). The effectiveness of this tool has been researched widely and ;scholars have established that it is not only effective in diagnosing ;depression in elderly patients, but it also has a significant ;correlation with DSM-5 criteria in patients that have depression ;(Durmaz, Soysal, Ellidokuz & Isik, 2018).

; ;Psychometric properties mean that a tool is valid and reliable. It ;means that it has to be accurate in assessing what it is meant to ;assess, and it should also be consistent in providing results (Asunta, ;Viholainen, Ahonen & Rintala, 2019). The psychometric properties of ;the GDS-15 has been assessed in different studies. In fact, in one ;study, these properties were assessed in regard to different elderly ;populations including those that are cognitively intact, those that are ;functionally impaired and primary care elderly patients that are ;community dwelling. The study established that the tool’s internal ;consistency reliability was moderate but acceptable. There was construct ;validity in the tool’s ability to measure depressed mood, suicidal ;ideation and life satisfaction. The ability of the tool to show the ;difference between patients that were depressed and those that were not ;depressed showed acceptable specificity and sensitivity. However, when ;it came to suicide attempt status, the scale showed significant ;weakness. ; In conclusion, the scholars pointed out that in all the ;geriatric populations that were included in the study, the scale showed ;impressive psychometric properties (Friedman, Heisel & Delavan, ;2005).

; ;This ;scale basically has 15 questions. They are easy to understand and ;answer for elderly patients. They all have yes or no answers. 10 ;questions have to be answered as Yes to attract a point and 5 questions ;have to be answered as No to attract a point. ; A score below 4 is ;normal. A scale between 5-8 is mild depression. A score of 9-11 show ;moderate depression and a scale between 12-15 indicates severe ;depression. This is an assessment tool that should be applied in all ;geriatric patients and especially those that are not cognitively ;impaired. Since the scale can be adjusted depending on what the patient ;feels, it means that it can be used in the assessment of the ;effectiveness of a psychopharmacological therapy in patients.

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Allan, ;C. E., Valkanova, V., & Ebmeier, K. P. (2014). Depression in older ;people is underdiagnosed. ;The Practitioner, ;258(1771), 19-22

Asunta, ;P., Viholainen, H., Ahonen, T., & Rintala, P. (2019). Psychometric ;properties of observational tools for identifying motor difficulties–a ;systematic review. ;BMC pediatrics, ;19(1), 322

Conradsson, ;M., Rosendahl, E., Littbrand, H., Gustafson, Y., Olofsson, B., & ;Lövheim, H. (2013). Usefulness of the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item ;version among very old people with and without cognitive ;impairment. ;Aging & mental health, ;17(5), 638-645

Durmaz, ;B., Soysal, P., Ellidokuz, H., & Isik, A. T. (2018). Validity and ;reliability of geriatric depression scale-15 (short form) in Turkish ;older adults. ;Northern clinics of Istanbul, ;5(3), 216

Friedman, B., Heisel, M. J., & Delavan, R. L. (2005). Psychometric properties of the 15‐item geriatric depression scale in functionally impaired, cognitively intact, community‐dwelling elderly primary care patients. ;Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, ;53(9), 1570-1576