Evaluating depression in cognitively healthy elderly people by using Mini‐Mental State Examination

Aim We examined a method for evaluating depression with the Mini‐Mental State Examination in cognitively healthy elderly people and employed the projective perspective. Methods In MMSE three groups—normal, depressed tendency, and depressed—completed the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) and a Japanese version of the 15‐item Geriatric Depression Scale. The Mini‐Mental State Examination evaluated individuals’ writing based on a sentence, the number of written words, and sentence content; it also assessed their copying of drawn figures. Results In the depressed group, the proportion corresponding to the characteristics of (i) to (iii) was higher than in the other two groups: (i) the calculation score was 0 or 1; (ii) subjects scored above the median in sentence writing relative to similar subjects with the same language and clinical setting; and (iii) subjects expressed feelings in their writing. One point was given for each characteristic, and we calculated the sum. Depressed subjects had a score ≥2. Conclusions This evaluation method can differentiate depressed subjects with high accuracy (sensitivity: 77.8%, specificity: 76.4%) without placing an extra burden on the subjects.