الفهرس 
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Abstract
To detect phenomenological gender differences in elderly
patients with depression for better understanding. In addition to illustrate
neuro- psychological gender differences in elderly patients with
depression for better management. Subjects: A case/control,
comparative study with consecutive sample. 80 elderly Egyptian subjects
of both sexes aged 60 years or above recruited from psychiatry outpatient
clinic in Kasr Al Aini and Beni Suef hospitals with no obvious cognitive
impairment or substance related psychiatric disorders. The subjects were
classified into 2 groups (depressed patients and control groups) 40
subjects each. The depressed patients were further classified into 20
depressed males and 20 depressed females subgroups. Methods:
Diagnostic criteria of the DSM-IV TR, Symptom checklist, MMSE,
GDS,WAIS and STAI were used.
Results: Comparison between the depressed patients and the control
group revealed that the depressed group has affected cognitively than the
control group as assessed by MMSE and also showed deterioration of
intellectual abilities (deterioration index). Comparison between the
depressed males and females subgroups revealed that the characteristics
of the patients and correlates of depression are similar in both sexes
except for some significant findings e.g, depression in elderly women is
more associated with widowhood, more suffering of sense of
worthlessness, more affection of attention and more disturbance in
reasoning and costructional abilities. However elderly men reported more
sexual dysfunction and significant negative correlation between memory
impairment (MMSE) and the severity of depression (GDS). Conclusion:
Depression in older patients is related to widowhood, presence of family
conflicts and positive past history of depression. There were no gender
differences in elderly depressed patients except for that depression in
elderly women is more associated with widowhood, sense of
worthlessness, more affection of attention and more disturbance in
reasoning and costructional abilities, while elderly men reported more
sexual dysfunction and significant negative correlation between memory
impairment (MMSE) and the severity of depression (GDS).
Key words: elderly, depression, gender, sex differences