15%

Looking at statistics in a different way can often alter our perceptions of things. A significant portion of people have a mental image of old people generally being down and depressed as a result of being old. It is thought at 5-15% of the elderly population do indeed suffer from depression.

However this means that 85-95% of older people are not suffering from depression and therefore it is normal for them to be perfectly happy and mentally well.

After making this poin the lecturer then moved on to consider the differences between depression in younger people compared to an older person. Perhaps I shall see this in practice but apparently in older people the symptoms tend to be more biological (altered sleep and appetite for instance).

Also discussed pseudodementia, where someone is diagnosed with dementia but actually are suffering from a psychiatric illness. Is there any information out there I wonder on how many people have been diagnosed with dementia when they are actually suffering from a condition that could be treated relatively better then dementia with the possibility of a recovery?