background The concept and etiology of late-life depression and differences between younger and older adults in the course and consequences of depression are not firmly established yet.
aim To build a research infrastructure and a high-quality database, allowing studies of 1. The role of the independent contribution and interaction of determinants in older persons, and 2. To compare the results in older persons with those in younger adults.
method We established a research consortium including specialists and researchers within the field of old age psychiatry from the departments of psychiatry and general practice of four universities in the Netherlands, the vu University Medical Center, Leiden University Medical Centre, University Medical Centre Groningen and University Medical Centre St. Radboud/ggz Nijmegen and three mental health institutions: ggzinGeest in Amsterdam, ggnet in Apeldoorn and Zutphen and Parnassia in The Hague.
The baseline assessment of nesdo included internationally accepted, commonly used measures of demographic variables, depression, psychosocial variables, stressors, activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, (re)activity of the autonomic nervous system, parameters for inflammation, somatic comorbidity and cognitive functioning. In addition, blood and saliva samples were obtained.
The course of late-life depression is followed up every six months by means of a postal assessment and a second face-to-face assessment at two years.
Data from nesdo can be pooled with existing data from depressed younger persons from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (nesda) (n = 1.149).
results We collected data from 378 depressed older persons and 133 non-depressed controls. The mean age of the depressed persons was 70.74 (sd: 7.4) and 66.1% was female. The mean age of the non-depressed controls was 70.01 (7.2) and 60.9% was female.
conclusion nesdo is unique in integrating social, psychological and biological paradigms and in combining data with nesda, creating a large longitudinal database of clinically depressed persons across the lifespan.