A study has shed new light on depression and those living in nursing homes. The study involved 272 elderly patients with an average age of 81 and looked at how often those patients were depressed and were prescribed antidepressants.

Research showed that patients in nursing homes are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and to self-report depression than those being treated in a home care center.

Those elderly who are living in a home-care setting are still residing within a familiar environment. They are still at home and independently able to complete some activities of daily living, such as bathing, cooking, or feeding themselves, whereas a long-term care patient may not be able to do all of these tasks.

Antidepressants are not a fix-all in the situation, and sometimes the depression is much too deep to be treated with simple SSRIs.

Nursing homes can be a very depressing place for residents. To complicate matters, nursing home abuse and neglect have been on the rise over the past few decades. Know the signs of nursing home abuse, and if you feel someone you love may have been the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, contact an attorney at 1 800 Attorney.