Cognition and social adversity in the depressed elderly.

This study investigated the cognitive patterns and social circumstances of the depressed elderly. Compared to elderly nondepressed controls, the depressed elderly reported more negative thoughts, hopelessness, and dysfunctional attitudes. Although severe life events were more common in the depressed group, social adversity was unrelated to scores on these cognitive measures. Furthermore, when compared with findings using younger adults, our results suggest that the age of the depressed person has little effect on cognitions in general, with the possible exception of automatic thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)