Help for relatives
How to recognize the warning signs of age depression
Updated on April 10th, 2025 – 5:28 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Older people develop depression more often than younger people. Age depression is not always recognized – which can have serious consequences.
All types of depression can occur in old age. As the German Depression Aid Foundation reports, depression after dementia is the most common mental illness in over 65-year-olds. There is no special age depression in the medical diagnosis system (ICD-10). However, depression has special symptoms in old age and is difficult to recognize.
If a person is over 65, then he is more susceptible to serious illnesses. This also increases the risk of depression. Whether a person becomes depressed depends on various factors:
If you notice that your older relatives only complain about your health, you should be attentive and listen carefully. Because, according to the German Depression Foundation, physical complaints are the first signs of depression in older people.
Seniors focus their attention particularly on physical suffering and not on the depressed mood. A clear diagnosis is therefore often difficult. The following symptoms can be a sign of depression:
In particularly severe cases, suicide attempts can also occur. Overall, the suicide rate for seniors with depression is higher than among younger people.
Depressive patients are usually not disoriented, for example they can name the date and time. This is often no longer the case with dementia patients.
When describing their symptoms, the associated suffering in depressive patients can be felt in the case of depressive patients, while dementing them more frequently or tend to hide the deficits.
Depression in old age is not treated differently than that of young people. If you have a family affected in the family, you can be of great help by accompanying him to visit a doctor.
The family doctor can then exclude physical symptoms such as an underactive thyroid and issue a transfer to a psychologist or psychotherapist. The treatment of depression is usually based on three pillars:
As a relative, you can easily notice the first signs of the disease and give an impetus for treatment. Find out well about depression so that you can better understand the problems of depressed people and apply more understanding. You should consider the following when dealing with depressed people:
The disease can also burden friends or relatives of depressive people. Pay attention to yourself and have realistic expectations of yourself. Relatives are important, but cannot replace a therapist.
There is no patent recipe to prevent depression. Reduce the likelihood of disease by reducing emotional stress and avoiding negative thoughts. With these measures you can also counteract depression in old age:
Get medical advice when a depressed mood lasts for a long time.
