Longstanding depression, but not recovery from depression, predicts mortality in old people

Little is known about the outcome of depression in elderly people. In a longitudinal study of elderly people in a Finnish municipality Pulska et al compared mortality in those with longstanding or recurrent depression and those who had recovered (p 432). By 199548% of those with longstanding or recurrent depression had died compared with 31% of those who had recovered and 26% of those who had not been depressed.