Older adults' acceptance of psychological and pharmacological treatments for depression

Two hundred participants aged 65 and older recruited from 4 different family medicine clinics rated the acceptability of 3 different treatments for geriatric depression: (a) cognitive therapy (CT), (b) cognitive bibliotherapy (CB), and (c) antidepressant medication (AM). Results showed that the acceptability of the treatments is a function of the severity of the symptoms of the depressed patient to whom they would be applied. CT and CB were rated as more acceptable than AM when patient symptoms were mild to moderate. However, CT was more acceptable than both CB and AM when patient symptoms were described as severe. Acceptability ratings were not related to the raters' own depressive symptoms. The practical implications of these results are discussed.