NESDO

Research project

NESDO, the Netherlands Study of Depression in Older persons, is a multi-site naturalistic prospective cohort study to examine the determinants, the course and the consequences of depressive disorders in older persons over a period of six years, and to compare these with those of depression earlier in adulthood.

Depression among elderly appears frequently, and often has an unfavourable prognosis. The NESDA project has interviewed elderly people (>60 years) with depression. The study is a part of NESDA (the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety), which makes it possible to compare the results of elderly to the results of younger people.

From 2007 until 2010, the NESDO consortium has recruited 510 depressed and non depressed older persons (≥ 60 years) at 5 locations throughout the Netherlands. Depressed persons were recruited from both mental health care institutes and general practices in order to include persons with late-life depression in various developmental and severity stages. Non-depressed persons were recruited from general practices.