Older Adults and Depression : the Relationships Between Distorted Thinking, Quality of Life and Depressive Themes

This study analyzed the relationships between depression, distorted thinking and quality of life in an elderly population. Ninety non-depressed and 72 depressed individuals were interviewed and administered 3 self report measures. The study results demonstrate that: (a) Those who reported greater numbers of cognitive distortions, reported lower quality of life than those who reported less cognitive distortions; (b) depressed individuals reported lower quality of life than non-depressed individuals; (c) depressed individuals endorsed more distorted thinking phrases than non-depressed individuals and (d) depressed individuals reported more subcategories of cognitive distortions than nondepressed individuals. The results of this study support the ideas that depressed older adults exhibit more distorted thinking and have a lower quality of life than the non-depressed