Quality of Life in Geriatric Depression: A Comparison of Remitters, Partial Responders, and Nonresponders

The authors examined patterns of improvement in quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients with recurrent major depression (MDD) after acute treatment. One hundred elderly (age 60–88 years) patients with recurrent MDD were randomized to receive either bupropion sustained-release (100 mg–300 mg/day) or paroxetine (10 mg–40 mg/day) for 6 weeks. Treatment with both paroxetine and bupropion was associated with improvements in QOL. Lower perceived Physical- and Social-Functioning QOL ratings at baseline were associated with lower treatment response. Improvement in depression symptom ratings correlated significantly with improvement in QOL on many domains, but accounted for less than one-quarter of the total variance. Remitters showed significantly (P