rading such information useful. But are descriptive conclusions reinforced by numbers the end or the means? Where is their utility? Specific clinical recommendations or even suggestions for clinical practice that might reflect such utility are rare, with the unfortunate result that many studies seem to rather echo one another than add meaningfully to the gerontology knowledge base. That discursive pattern is nowhere more evident with respect to research projects dealing with the connection between emotional and physical conditions in the elderly. Depression is the dependent variable, and the somatic problems (from COPD to diabetes to hangnail) are independent variables. Seven articles, each considered in turn, that give an account of such projects are the focus of this research.
It may be the case that clinical professionals can lift meaning and apply utility out of the statistics with ease. That would be a null hypothesis for the present research. It remains, then, to establish a working hypothesis: It is hypothesized that a significant body of research into the linkages between somatic disease and depression in the elderly fails to address the practical implications of the very data researchers use to measure such linkages.
Banerjee, Sube, Kim Shamash, Alastair J.D. Macdonald, and Anthony H. Mann. 1996, October 26. "Randomised Controlled Trial of Effect of Intervention by Psychogeriatric Team on Depression in Frail Elderly People at Home." British Medical Journal 313:1058-1061.
Theoretical orientation. Psychological and physical damage may result in elderly people who suffer from depression, which feeds and is fed by lack of social support, physical disability, and chronic disease. The picture is complicated for elderly who are socially and psychologically isolated because they live at home.
Hypothesis: That a geriatric team approach to caring for depressed disabled elderly patients who live at home is more beneficial to t...