Intervention for late life depression in residential care

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7227.119/a

BMJ 2000;320:119 ( 8 January )

Letters

Intervention for late life depression in residential care

Being old, depressed, and disabled is to be in triple jeopardy

Important research seems to have been greeted with only two faint cheers

How much trial and error should we tolerate in community trials?

Cochrane preferred to use "effective" where other people used "efficacious"

Cochrane may not have been first to define efficacy and effectiveness

Being old, depressed, and disabled is to be in triple jeopardy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Llewellyn-Jones et al have provided strong evidence that a multifactorial intervention for late life depressive illnesshas a measurable beneficial effect.¹ I have provided specialistmedical services to the community that Llewellyn-Jones et al studiedand as a researcher have tried to study similar participants inclinical trials of multifactorial interventions. Research intorehabilitation, falls, and geriatric evaluation and managementshare the same issues asdepression.

Haynes (in his editorial accompanying the paper)² and Deeks and Juszczak (in their commentary)¹ $---$ and the rapid responsesto the paper³ $---$ raise important issues. Although this area ofclinical investigation remains in development, it is clinicallyrelevant research. The researchers did well to follow up the percentageof participants that they did. The number eligible was 220, andthey managed to have outcomes for 185 (85%). This included 15participants who died: death is a legitimate end point for thefrail older peoplestudied.

. . . [Full text of this article]

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