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Depression screening is an effective way of identifying missed elderly depression cases and initiating appropriate treatment. However, the evidence-supporting screening alone did not lead to effective treatment and improvement in depression. Depression care management intervention has proven to be effective in enhancing treatment adherence and depression outcomes in patients with later life depression. The intervention was originally developed in the U S, and has recently been tested in many countries in Western, European, and Asia-pacific regions. A recent study in Korea found that care management not only contributed to reducing depressive symptoms in geriatric patients suffering from depression, but also increased the treatment adherence rate, which in turn increased the remission rate. Care management was an effective strategy for elderly depression management. Through disseminating such an intervention program nationwide, elderly depression, which has been emerging as a serious challenge in aged society, may be effectively managed.
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