Abstract
The underdiagnosis of depression is considered to be very common in primary care with only one-third to onehalf of those people with a major depressive disorder being identified. 1 In addition to major depression, 50 percent of the approximately 1.5 million people in the United States residing in nursing facilities have less severe symptoms of depression which are also undiagnosed and untreated. 2 The under diagnosis of depression is even more apparent when a person has a cognitive impairment since the symptoms of depression are often mistakenly attributed to dementia. 3 The following study compared the symptoms or behaviors of two groups of people, those with dementia and those with dementia and depression, using symptoms/behaviors taken from the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. Of the 19 symptoms on the CSDD, none significantly discriminated the depressed group from the nondepressed group. This finding suggests that diagnosis based upon current observational approaches is insufficient when assessing for depression with concomitant moderate to severe dementia. Further considerations for assessing depression in dementia were discussed.