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Task Performance of Older Women with Major Depression

Depression is a serious mental health illness and one of the most burdensome diseases to society. In fact, it is the most costly disease among mental illnesses in the United States (Murray & Lopez, 1997). The assessment of task performance is an important contribution provided by occupational therapists in the care of patients with depression. Such assessment can detect various difficulties experienced by patients. In older patients these difficulties are more complicated due to aging. Examples of difficulties may be failing to dress oneself, inability to take medication on time, and needing assistance in preparing a meal. Factors that underlie these difficulties might be age-related factors (e.g., cognitive and physical impairments), environment-related factors (e.g., novelty of the context in which the task was performed), or depression-related factors (e.g., negative symptoms associated with depression [e.g., loss of motivation]). The purpose of this dissertation is to determine difficulties in task performance experienced by older women with late life depression.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-06032008-133954
Date15 July 2008
CreatorsHamed, Razan
ContributorsDenise Chisholm, PhD, OTR/L, Elizabeth R. Skidmore, PhD, OTR/L, Joan C. Rogers, PhD, OTR/L, Richard Morycz, PhD, Margo B. Holm, PhD, OTR/L
PublisherUniversity of Pittsburgh
Source SetsUniversity of Pittsburgh
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06032008-133954/
Rightsrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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