Depression in older age:challenges for general practitioners

The aim of this thesis was to clarify the care delivered by general practitioners (GPs) to older adults with depression. Older adults represent a large cohort in general practice, and will eventually face (health) problems. If these problems interact with others, they are referred to as complex problems. Older patients with depression may be prone to face these complex problems because their mental health interacts with other problems. In this thesis, we report that feelings of loneliness were frequently present among older adults with depression, and that these contributed to a worse prognosis of their depression. Loneliness was also adversely related to having contact for a mental health problem with a care provider. Other factors associated with contact with a care provider were age, ethnicity, and household income. The presence of a psychiatric disorder was not associated with having contact. A meta-analysis demonstrated that cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for depression, while other non-pharmacological treatments were not sufficiently studied. Furthermore, adherence to antidepressant therapy was at stake: more than one third discontinued antidepressant use prematurely and about a quarter discontinued within the first four weeks of treatment. Finally, older adults with depression have more chronic somatic diseases, use more drugs chronically (independent of the use of antidepressants), and were more often nonadherent to cardiovascular drugs as compared to mentally healthy controls. These findings confirm that older adults with depression often have complex problems. The findings contribute to our knowledge of care requirements for older adults with depression by identifying key difficulties in the provision of care by GPs

Систематизация знаний, умений и навыков в содержании специальных предметов будущих строителей

В статье рассматривается проблема усовершенствования процесса профессиональной подготовки специалистов строительного профиля.У статті розглядається проблема вдосконалення процесу професійної підготовки фахівців будівельного профілю.The article studies the problem of perfecting the process of professional training of specialists in building construction

The information society and its consequences: lessons from the past.

Without doubt the year 1976 was an important year for the discussion on Computers and Society. In that year Joseph Weizenbaum’s Computer Power and Human Reason was published and IFIP’s TC 9 on Computers and Society was founded. In this contribution we want to give a short overview of the history since then and answer the question “what lessons can be learned from the past twenty-five years?” Following a review of the vigorous debate on the development of computers in society that has taken place during that period, four main questions are raised: 1. Is the Information Society a new phenomenon or is it a question of emphasis? 2. Has the development led to a new revolution as never seen before, as many scientists and policy makers would have us believe? 3. What are, in a general sense, the consequences of this evolving information society? 4. Can information technology be controlled, and if so, what are the main instruments of control