Author
- Greg B Crawford1
- Lyell McEwin Health Service1
2004
Excerpt- Research indicates that depression is under-diagnosed and under-treated in palliative care patients
- There are many screening tests for depression, some of them validated for palliative care populations and some of them for elderly medically ill and even for Australian populations
- The "Gold Standard" for a diagnosis of depression is still the diagnostic interview using DSM-IV criteria
- Access to psychiatric and psychological specialists in Australian Palliative Care Services is variable
- Pharmacological treatment evidence exists for non-palliative care populations
- Non-pharmacological therapies must not be forgotten