Prognosis of the Depressions of Later Life

Abstract

The following paper represents an attempt to determine more precise prognostic criteria in the large group of the depressions of later life, to find if possible some other guiding lines than the relatively rule-of-thumb principles which obtain, freed as far as possible from debatable preconceptions as to the existence of an “involutional melancholia” or other specific diagnostic label. Obviously in such a group the influence of the menopause and involution periods might be expected to be prominent.