La relación entre la depresión y el deterioro cognitivo en los adultos mayores.

Abstract

This systematic review focuses on the synthesis of information to determine the relationship between depression and cognitive impairment in elder adults, disorders that bring with them cognitive, physical, and emotional repercussions, which causes the adult to present limitations in the independent execution of their activities of daily living. In this context a bibliographic review was carried out in an approved search since 2012, supported by a registration matrix of scientific articles. Similarly, thirty scientific articles were selected, twelve of them talk about the consequences of cognitive impairment in older adults, other eleven articles refer to evidence on the consequences of depression, and the last seven are about the relationship between cognitive decline and depression in elder adults. Based on this, it is possible to determine that even though cognitive deterioration in elder adults causes a progressive problem on their physical and mental functions, it is not the main cause of depression. However, they are related because the progress of these two conditions can increase the mood deterioration, the loss of meaningful activities, and isolation, among other effects, limiting the performance of activities and progressively reducing life quality of elder adults. Finally, the consequences that depression entails in the daily life of the elderly are identified, being able to show physical consequences, which include loss of energy, mental consequences, like problems in decision-making, and emotional consequences in the manifestation of suicidal ideas.