Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety are all common problems among the elderly, and they do get treatment for these conditions. The treatment comes in the form of primacy care doctors, and they are doing their job in prescribing medications like Prozac as needed. However, there is evidence suggesting that these doctors may not be able to devote as much time as they should in helping relieve those particular ailments, instead favoring treating the physical problems present with being old.
A research team videotaped 386 appointments – with permission to do so – between elderly patients and their doctors in three separate areas. They discovered that the average time in these consultations where mental health was discussed covered about two minutes. This is a relatively small amount of time for a concern that has the potential to be just as serious as any physical condition. Deteriorating mental health is not as big a concern among those who are providing medical care to the elderly, with many assuming that this is the case due to prevalent conceptions about the state of mind of those who are of advanced age.
More than half of the patients that were filmed suggested that appeared to have depression mentioned that they never spoke with their medical care providers about the problem. Their emotional state seemed to be significantly less of a concern than their physical state. An estimated one in every five visits had time devoted to the discussion of their mental state. Most patients were found to be unwilling to let their doctors know about their mental or emotional troubles, and the ones that did open up about that received responses that were ineffective, or had the potential to make the problem worse. Numerous cases where medication such as Wellbutrin or Prozac might have helped were missed out on.
A mental health condition is usually not seen with as much severity as a physical one, even among the elderly. As such, most doctors might be tempted to just prescribe them Prozac or whatever medication seems appropriate without really considering the problem. Most primary care providers for the elderly lack the mental health training to really be of much help.
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Mark Walters is a part-time writer and a part-time researcher. He is currently self-studying various Far Eastern languages and is an avid fiction reader. He is currently writing articles oriented towards consumers of pharmaceutical products. Online Drugstore Pharmacy is a reputable online drug store and offers an array of health products and medicare prescription drugs. Buy Soma|Buy Tramadol|Buy Prozac|Buy Fioricet
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