(Lexington, KY) Psychiatry Residents from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine partnered with the Senior Perspectives programs at The Medical Center at Franklin, Scottsville and Caverna to perform a research study. Cassey Nelson, D.O., Dr. Joseph Grau, M.D., and Dr. Shawn Brown, M.D. studied the effectiveness of intensive outpatient therapy on depression in the elderly. The Psychiatric Residents studied the results of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) which is administered to the patient at admission and discharge.
According to the study “Overall this study demonstrated that Intensive outpatient therapy along with medication management helps with depression in the elderly. These results were true across the areas that were tested. Some strengths of this study were that it demonstrated with completion of a IOP program patients can experience improvement.”
The average results were tabulated before and after the program. The average score before the program was 8.6. The standard deviation was 3.41. The average score after the program was 2.47 with a standard deviation of 2.36. The overall decrease in score was 6.13 units. The results were significantly greater than 0 with a p value of <.001.
