to compare the relationship between personality traits and the loneliness rate of change between the UK and the US.

We used data from 7932 older adults 52 years and older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and 7,979 older adults 50 years and older from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). In ELSA, we considered wave 5 (2010/2011) as our baseline and wave 6 (2012/2013) to wave 9 (2018/2019) for loneliness follow-up. In HRS, we used wave 10 (2010) as baseline and wave 11 (2012) to wave 14 (2018) as follow-up. Loneliness was measured using the three-item R-UCLA, and personality traits were measured using the 25 items from MIDUS 1 and 2 Studies. We used the rate of change to analyse the changes in loneliness over time and multilevel mixed-effects linear regression to analyse the relationship between personality traits and loneliness rate of change. We adjusted the models by social isolation, sociodemographic, economic and health outcomes.

ELSA and HRS participants were similar except for their age (67 years in ELSA and 73 in HRS) and ethnicity (98% white in ELSA and 79% white in HRS). Over eight years, we observed a decrease in loneliness in the participants of both cohorts. The overall rate of decline was -3.93 in ELSA and -2.38 in HRS. Among the ELSA participants, in the fully adjusted models, extroversion (ß= 0.012, 95% CI: 0.004-0.021) and neuroticism (ß= - 0.010, 95% CI: -0.018-0.002) were the only personality traits associated with the loneliness rate of decline, while among the HRS participants, extroversion (ß=0.084, 95% CI: 0.070- 0.098), neuroticism (ß=-0.095, 95% CI: -0.109-0.082), agreeableness (ß=0.055, 95% CI: 0.039-0.071), conscientiousness (ß=0.045, 95% CI:0.029-0.061) and openness to experience (ß=0.031, 95% CI: 0.019-0.044) were associated with the loneliness rate of decline in the fully adjusted models.

There are important country differences in the relationship between personality traits and loneliness rate of decline. We hypothesised that in the absence of a social protection system and universal health care, the role of psychological factors might become even more relevant to predict loneliness. Cultural factors might also be playing a role.

This study aims to analyze the effect of reminiscence therapy using immersive virtual reality technology, in comparison with conventional reminiscence therapy, on anxiety and depressive symptoms of people with dementia.

This pilot study followed a randomized controlled trial design. A convenience sample of 16 people with dementia was randomly divided in experimental and control groups. Due to health-related factors, 2 participants abandoned the study before completing the intervention. Intervention consisted of 8 biweekly individual reminiscence sessions conducted by trained researchers, in which participants in the experimental group viewed 360o videos of locations with personal relevance considering their life narratives, using virtual reality headsets to promote an immersive experience. Intervention in the control group was similar, except the videos were displayed in a computer monitor. The assessment was carried out before and after the intervention, using the Geriatric Depression Scale (15 items) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (7 items).

Intervention and control groups were compared regarding sociodemographic variables and level of dementia progression at baseline. No statistically significant differences were found. Regarding the comparison of anxiety and depressive symptoms pre- and post-intervention, a slight decrease was observed in both groups, although statistical significance was not reached (p>0.05).

The results of the present study do not illustrate an added value regarding the use of immersive stimuli with virtual reality technology, in reminiscence therapy programs with people with dementia. Further research is warranted to better ascertain the cost effectiveness of using these technologies in the non-pharmacological treatment of people with dementia.

The number of elderly populations continues to increase as the advancement in healthcare grows, which is shown by the increase of life expectancy, the declining mortality rates, and the surge of people with dementia (PwD). This mental health issue is barely identifiable by health workers and the elderly themselves especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is important to evaluate and identify the unmet needs of people with dementia, especially mild to moderate dementia.

To describe the unmet needs of people with mild to moderate dementia during COVID- 19 pandemic in 2021 in East Jakarta, Indonesia.

This study is using the CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale) to assess severity level of Dementia, then using the CANE (Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly) instrument to assess the unmet needs of people with mild to moderate dementia.

96 participants were assessed suffer from mild dementia (75%) and moderate dementia (25%). This study procured five substantial unmet needs proportion, which are friendship (26.0%), psychological distress (20.8%), close relationships (19.8%), memory dysfunction (16.7%), and daily activities (10.4%). During interviews in conducting unmet needs assessments, people with mild to moderate dementia and accompanying families expressed their desire for an activity that would be useful to overcome their unmet needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic for the people with mild to moderate dementia has an impact on friendships, psychological distress, memory dysfunction and daily activities so they need meaningful activities to overcome them.

Cognitive impairment is a growing problem with increasing burden in ageing global population. Older adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) have higher risk of dementia during ageing. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) has been proven as a potential biomarker related to dementia. The present study aims to assess the cognitive deficits in older adults with MDD and investigate their association with peripheral blood levels of NfL.

We enrolled 39 individuals with MDD and 15 individuals with mild neurocognitive disorder or major neurocognitive disorder, Alzheimer’s type. Both groups were over age 65 and with restricted Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. Demographic data, clinical variables, and plasma NfL levels were obtained. We used cluster analysis according to their cognitive profile and estimated the correlation between plasma NfL levels and cognitive impairment in each domain.

In the MDD group, participants have higher rate of family psychiatry history and higher rate of current alcohol use habit compared with patients with neurocognitive disorders. In the neurocognitive disorders group, participants showed significantly lower score in total MMSE and higher plasma NfL levels. Part of the MDD patients presented cognitive deficits similar to that of neurocognitive disorders (cluster A). In cluster A, the total MMSE score (r=-0.58277, p=0.0287) and the comprehension domain (r=-0.71717, p=0.0039) were negatively correlated to NfL levels after adjusting for age, while the associations had not been observed in the other cluster.

We noted the negative correlation between NfL levels and cognitive performance in MDD patients whose cognitive manifestation were more similar to that of degenerative neurocognitive disorders. NfL might be a potential marker to predict patients with MDD to develop cognitive decline especially in domains typically found in Alzheimer’s disease. Further longitudinal studies are required to validate our findings for clinical implications.

The traffic issues have been attracting global attention due to increased occurrence and higher mortality rate in the older population. Many countries have employed different kinds of regulations on the elder drivers depending either on their age or whether being demented. These policy differences left a research gap to identify the temporal relationship between serious traffic accidents (STA) and dementias, which can inform the most appropriate time for policymaking. In the present study, we linked two national databases and performed analyses to explore this problem.

With the grant and supports from the government, the research team combined the databases of STA registries and the whole population dataset of National Health Insurance Research Database to form a 10-year retrospective cohort for analyses. We performed both retrospective and prospective directions to explore the time length between STAs and the diagnoses of dementia depending on the selection of the STA occurrences and dementia diagnoses as outcomes. In addition to descriptive statistical analyses, we also performed inferential statistics to analyse the variables between different types of STAs. A p-value less than 0.05 was set as statistically significant.

437516 persons involved in STAs were enrolled for analyses and the mean age was 61.47 years (SD=8.90) with sex ratio (F/M) of 0.62. We divided the samples into three groups: (1) STAs without dementias (95.17%) (2) dementias after STAs (3.40%), and (3) dementias before STAs (1.43%). The mean age of the 3rd group (73.80 years, SD=8.79) was significantly older than the rest two. When comparing these three groups, a preceded dementia diagnosis was a significant risk factor for repeated STAs. (OR: 1.205, 95% CI: 1.100-1.320, p<0.001) Finally, an average length of 2.35 years (SD: 1.60) was found for those who was diagnosed of dementias before the first STA while 2.57 years (SD: 1.69) was noted for the diagnosis of dementia after first STA.

In our study, dementia was identified as a significant risk factor for STAs. We further asserted that 2.5 years would be an appropriate time length for the authorities to examine the traffic risks of those who were diagnosed of dementias.

Heart rate variability (HRV), a quantitative measure of mainly parasympathetic activity, has been applied in evaluating many types of psychiatric and neurological disorders, including dementia (or neurocognitive disorders). However, although dementia patients often showed significantly lower HRV (various indices) than healthy controls, and different types of dementia had distinct HRV features, the results were not identical across studies. We designed a systematic review and meta-analysis for incorporating data from different studies.

We gathered studies comparing HRV in patients with dementia and in healthy controls. HRV was analysed in several ways: parasympathetic function in hierarchical order (main analysis); total variability; comparison of HRV between different subtypes of dementia; specific indices of HRV; HRV reactivity.

In initial search, we found 3425 relevant articles; 24 studies with a total of 1107 dementia patients and 1017 control participants finally entered the meta-analysis. The dementia patients had a significantly lower resting HRV for parasympathetic function (Hedges’g=−0.3596, p=0.0002) and total variability (Hedges’g=−0.3059, p=0.0002) than the controls. For diagnostic subgroup analysis relative to the controls, HRV was significantly lower in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients (Hedges’g=−0.3060) and in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) (Hedges’g=−1.4154, p<0.0001). Relative to patients with Alzheimer’s disease, HRV in patients with DLB was significantly lower (Hedges’g=−1.5465, p=0.0381). Meta-regression revealed that gender proportion was significantly associated with effect size.

Our results support that dementia (especially DLB and MCI) patients to have lower parasympathetic activity than health people. The influence of gender on the results should be carefully interpreted.

Empathy is a core characteristic expected from all healthcare professionals. Higher empathy is associated with reduced burnout, greater job satisfaction, and better patient outcomes. However, there are inequalities in care provided to older adults and people with dementia. Several reports have highlighted that, too often, care lacking in empathy is provided to older populations. The healthcare workforce needs to have the skills and attitudes to provide high-quality care that incorporates empathy. Therefore, appropriate education needs to be provided at undergraduate level to enhance empathy. To understand how empathy can be enhanced towards older adults and people with dementia, a systematic review and meta-analysis were completed.

The objectives of this systematic review and meta-analysis were:

• To identify what educational interventions were used to enhance empathy in healthcare students towards older adults and people with dementia,

• To identify what instruments were used to measure empathy change,

• To determine the efficacy of interventions on empathy.

A systematic literature search was completed in March 2021 using five electronic databases, grey literature, and snowball approaches. Studies were assessed by two independent reviewers using a pre-determined set of criteria. A narrative synthesis was completed, data was grouped and tabulated, and a random-effects meta-analysis was completed on eligible studies.

Of 1,937 studies, 25 studies of moderate quality evaluated interventions that targeted empathy towards aging (n=20) and dementia (n=5). Three types of interventions were used: simulation, intergenerational contact, and mixed approaches, and most (84%) reported positive empathy change post-intervention. Empathy was measured most frequently using generic, self-administered instruments. Meta-analysis of studies (n=9) showed a small, but significant effect on empathy change; however, heterogeneity was high.

The evidence suggests that interventions can enhance empathy in undergraduate healthcare students towards older adults. However, few studies reviewed empathy towards dementia and the impact of interventions, therefore further research is needed.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an effective, safe, and well-tolerated option for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The minimal medical and cognitive side effects are advantages of rTMS for all patients. However, the majority of rTMS studies in older adults are notable for underdosing rTMS relative to the corresponding FDA-protocol, as noted by recent international meta-analyses. This study utilizes the standardized rTMS FDA protocol and compares the response rates between older adult and non-older adult patients in a TRD clinic in Atlanta, Georgia with depressive symptoms as the primary outcome and anxiety symptoms as the secondary outcome.

This retrospective chart review of patients who received rTMS between March 2017 to June 2022 used descriptive statistics to compare treatment parameters and dropout rates between older adult and non-older adult patients. A 2 x 3 repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyzed changes in self-reported depression and anxiety symptom severity throughout treatment course (baseline, treatment midpoint, and final treatment) between the two groups.

Eighty-nine patients were included for analysis: Group 1: >55 years old (n= 42; M= 66.48, sd= 6.16; 71% female), and Group 2: <55 years old (n = 47; M= 37.40, sd= 9.13; 60% female). All patients received at least 3000 pulses per session, with 85.71% of patients completing the FDA protocol in Group 1 and 85.11% of patients completing in Group 2. A >50% improvement in depression scores at the end of treatment were seen in 38.1% of patients in Group 1 and 31.9% of patients in Group 2. Both groups demonstrated significant within-group reductions of depression throughout treatment (ps < .001). A smaller subset of patients completed an anxiety questionnaire. Forty percent in Group 1 (n=24) and 33.3% in Group 2 (n=25) showed a >50% improvement in anxiety scores by end of treatment. Both groups demonstrated significant within-group reductions of anxiety throughout treatment (ps < .001). The between groups’ difference for change in depression and anxiety scores was not statistically significant.

With FDA protocol dosing, older and non-older patients have consistent response and tolerability. While overall response rates were slightly lower than reported standardized clinical trials, our real-world sample highlights the effectiveness of rTMS for patients, including adults over 55, treated in an unselected, naturalistic outpatient sample.

Older people with mental illness are likely to have increased difficulty in accessing health services due to social isolation and functional disability. It is well reported that people with mental illness are also more likely to have chronic and complex medical needs, be frail and be socially isolated. They are two times more likely to have respiratory disease, have cardiovascular disease, have metabolic syndrome, have diabetes, six times more likely to have dental problems and more likely to die earlier than the general population.

The physical health program developed by the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) community Older Peoples Mental Health Service (OPMHS) was part of a statewide project, facilitated by the Older People's Mental Health Policy Unit, Mental Health Branch, NSW Ministry of Health, where a variety of strategies were developed and implemented, to support the physical health of older mental health consumers using a biopsychosocial approach.

NSLHD focused on providing OPMHS clinicians with the opportunity and resources to support older people with mental illness with their physical health and wellbeing, in particular Cardiometabolic Health, both screening and supporting interventions to address abnormalities and proactively support healthy lifestyle strategies. In each of the three community services, the program was led by a senior clinician who supported their team clinicians to carry out physical health assessments and planning.

The program commenced in July 2020, with the percentage of consumers of OPMHS who had regular metabolic monitoring completed, increasing from less than 10% to over 75%. Proactive person centred consideration and discussion including aspects of the consumers physical health and socialisation opportunities took place between clinicians, consumers and carers whilst their reviewing care in the community setting.

The improvements have been sustained through a variety of strategies, in particular, capacity building within the multidisciplinary teams and the provision of the necessary resources 2023 IPA International Congress_Lisbon, Portugal Anne Hoolahan to carry out physical health monitoring and health promotion activities. Appropriate pathways were developed to escalate medical support recognised and sustain physical and psychological supports post discharge.

Anne Hoolahan is a clinical nurse consultant in the Northern Sydney Local Health District, Older Peoples Mental Health Service. Anne qualified as a registered nurse in Sydney in 1990. Anne has worked in a variety of inpatient and community roles caring for older people before specialising in older people’s mental health. Anne holds a DipTeach (Ed) | MEd (Adult) | GradDipApSc (Nursing) | GradDipHlthSc (Geront) | GradCertMHlth (Older People).

This is a report of a workshop for local residents organized by university researchers in various fields with the aim to develop a dementia prevention method. The five academic fields involved in the project are Health & Sports, Psychology, Food Nutrition, Music, and Nursing.

Dementia Prevention Workshop took place once a week between October 2021 and July 2022 except for some intervals due to surges in Covid-19 infection cases. Dual task exercises were conducted at each session, followed by groupworks by researchers of Psychology, Nutrition, Music, and Nursing Science taking turns. Psychologists facilitated the understanding of assertion, nutritionists held lectures on food life designed for dementia prevention, musicians played instruments, and nurses intervened through the Group Reminiscence Method. The Nursing Science experts conducted evaluations at the beginning and the end of each session using SF-36 and CES-D and checked the participants’ mood before and after the reminiscence session with Japanese UWIST mood adjective checklist (JUMACL).

16 participants took the measurement after the workshop, and their average age (SD) was 72.9 (5.5). In the overall evaluation, the participants’ motor ability improved(p<.05), and they retained cognitive functions. In SF-36, no statistically significant differences were observed before and after the classroom. Compared to the data from 2017, the scores in the social aspect were lower. In CES-D, the scores significantly worsened after the workshop, with some participants’ scores exceeding 16 points, which is the depression cutoff point. In JUMACL, the Tense Arousal (TA) related to the arousal state and the Energetic Arousal (EA), which is supposedly related to intellectual activities, both improved after the session.

In a single evaluation before and after a group reminiscence session, the state of relaxed concentration with a suggested connection with intellectual activities, but the overall evaluation result throughout the workshop project suggested the need to reinforce the approach to the mental aspect because of some participants observed with decreased scores in the mental aspects with depressive tendency. We will establish an intervention plan by also incorporating the impact of Covid-19-related depression.

Persons newly diagnosed with dementia and their family member is imperative often experience uncertainty and inadequate support. This study aims to evaluate a post-diagnostic support programme guided by the 5 Pillars Model proposed by Alzheimer Scotland on the self-efficacy among persons with early dementia and their family members.

A prospective cohort study design was conducted between 2019 and 2022. Subject recruitment was conducted in four non-government organizations. A multi-domain empowerment programme, covering various aspects about dementia knowledge, management skills, peer support, future decision-making and community resources, was developed. The programme was provided to people newly diagnosed of early dementia in small group format over 2 months and to family members individually through an eLearning platform over 9 months. Self efficacy in dementia management of people with dementia and their family members were measured using Chronic Disease Self-efficacy Scale and Caregiver Self-efficacy Scale (CSES), respectively, whereas caregiving burden was measured using Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Study outcomes were measured at baseline, immediate and 6-month post-intervention. Paired t-tests were performed to detect within-subject changes over time.

A total of 151 persons with early dementia and 294 family caregivers completed assessment at baseline and follow up. Self-efficacy in dementia management reported by persons with dementia at 6-month post-intervention was significantly higher than that reported at baseline (p = .021) and immediate post-intervention (i.e. 2-month follow up) (p = .006). Family members reported a significantly higher CSES score (p < .001) and subscale scores in thoughts (p = .001) and disruptive behaviour management (p = .001) at 9-month follow up, but significant reduction in caregiving burden (p < .001) was only noted among those who perceived higher burden than the local norms at baseline (ZBI score ≥ 25, n = 110).

This study provides empirical evidence that post-diagnostic support would empower persons with early dementia and their family members on adapting the impacts brought by dementia. Further study on examining the longer term effects on care outcomes and health service utilisation would be valuable.

People with dementia are more prone to premature nursing home placement after hospitalization due to physical and mental deconditioning which makes care-at- home more difficult. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a post hospital discharge transitional care program on reduction of nursing home placement in people with dementia.

A matched case-control study was conducted between 2018 and 2021. A transitional care program using case management approach was developed. Participants enrolled the program by self-enrolment or referral from hospitals or NGOs. Community-dwelling people with dementia discharged from hospitals received a four- week residential care at a dementia care centre with intensive nursing care, physiotherapy and group activities promoting social engagement, followed by eight- week day care rehabilitation activities to improve their mobility and cognitive functioning. They were matched on a 1:5 ratio by age and sex to people with dementia discharged from a convalescent hospital who did not participate in this program for comparison. The study outcome was nursing home admission, measured three months (i.e. post-intervention), six months, and nine months after hospital discharge. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to investigate factors associated with nursing home placement at each measurement time-point.

361 hospital admission episodes (n=67 interevntion, n=294 control) were examined. The regression results showed that participants in the intervention group were significantly less likely to be admitted to nursing home three months (OR = 0.023, 95% CI: 0.003-0.201, p = .001) and six months (OR = 0.094, 95% CI: 0.025-0.353, p = .001) than the controls after hospital discharge, but the intervention effect did not sustain nine months after hospital discharge. Longer hospital length of stay, and hospital admission due to dementia, mental disturbances such as delirium, or mental disorders IPA_Abstract_PDP_20230119_clean 2 such as schizophrenia significantly predicted nursing home admission three months and six months after hospital discharge.

The transitional care program could help reduce nursing home placement in people with dementia after hospital discharge. To sustain the intervention effect, more continual support after the intervention as well as family caregiver training would be required.

Lately, there is a growing interest around person-centred care in long- term care. Providing care that meets the wishes and needs of residents is essential but also challenging. Studies on implementing person-centred care point to a gap between theory and practice and argue that education is important in reducing this gap. What is not yet clear is how this education should be organized. The theory of care ethics states that a moral-relational attitude is necessary in order to achieve this. This attitude is not achieved by only focusing on formal knowledge but can be found in the care staff's implicit and experiential knowledge. Therefore, we examined how care staff can learn about person-centred care in a moral- relational way using their own experiences.

In 2020-2022, we conducted an action research in two care home locations. Care staff started by collecting their experiences on the ward. Afterwards, they reflected on these experiences in order to learn more about good and person-centred care. This study reports on the evaluation of the study (after year one and two) in interviews (n=17) in which care staff shared perspectives on working with experiences. The transcripts of the interviews have been thematically analysed.

Care staff stated that working with experiences increased awareness, giving them feelings of more control and pleasure in their work. Sharing experiences also created more context, providing care staff with guidelines for doing the right thing for the resident. This richer context was created due to the freedom they had to share their subjective experience, which worked empowering. Care staff also felt that it is necessary to reflect on experiences. Using their own experiences spoke directly to the imagination, through which they felt recognized and acknowledged.

Working with experiences in the daily care routine contributes to moral-relational learning and providing person-centred care to residents. This requires a different view of learning, in which primarily the experiential and tacit knowledge of care staff, and a communitive space for moral-relational learning.

Late-life suicide is the most serious consequences of late-life depression (LLD). Nevertheless, suicidal behavior is complex and hard to predict. With the help of MRI scans and machine learning algorithm, we aim to examine the neural signatures of suicidality in patients of LLD.

We recruited 83 patients of LLD with a mean age of 68.8 years, where 48 were suicidal (26 with suicidal ideation and 22 with past suicide attempts). Cross-sample entropy (CSE) analysis was employed to analyze the resting-state function MRI data. Three-dimensional CSE volume in 90 region-of-interest of the brain in each participant was input into convolutional neural networks (CNN) to test the classification accuracy of suicidality.

After six-fold cross-validation, we found several regions in the default mode, fronto-parietal, and cingulo-opercular resting-state networks to have a mean accuracy above 75% to predict suicidality. Moreover, the models with right amygdala and left caudate provided the most reliable accuracy in all cross-validation folds, signifying their unique roles in late-life suicide.

Our results provide potential targets for intervention or biomarkers in late-life suicide. More research must be conducted to consolidate our results with scalable implementation in clinical setting.

During the spread of infectious diseases, social isolation increases among the elderly with cognitive impairment. The telephone may be a traditional but realistic and reliable tool to prevent social isolation. We report here a pilot study to examine the effects of regular telephone communication on elderly people with cognitive decline living in urban areas.

Seventeen elderly people (including four males) who attended a session for recruiting participants for a class using the board game “Go” in Tokyo were paired and talked on the phone once a week about Go issues and other interests during the 3-month class period, starting January 2022. At the end of the class in April 2022, a self-administered questionnaire (5 items, 4-point scale) and semi-structured interview were conducted. The Ethics Committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology approved the study, and the participants’ written consent was obtained.

The participants’ mean age was 80.1 ± 5.5 years, and the mean score of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which screens for mild cognitive impairment, was 21.3 ± 3.1, with 16 subjects (94.1%) scoring below the cut-off value of 25. The percentages of “agree” or “somewhat agree” responses indicated that the telephone interaction was “enjoyable” (94.1%), “had a positive effect” (88.2%), and they “would like to talk on the phone sometimes in the future” (76.5%). In the interviews, the positive responses were “(Because I was looking forward to the phone call so eagerly) I couldn't wait for the phone call,” “I enjoyed playing Go,” “It was easy to talk about Go because it was a common topic,” “We talked about things other than Go,” and “I want to go out with my pair partner,” while others were “I was careful about what talk about” and “It was difficult to maintain psychological distance from my pair partner.”

The results suggest that telephone communication may be effective for preventing social isolation among the elderly with cognitive impairment. We believe that promoting telephone interaction during normal times between residents in the community with common interests will build supportive relationships and lead to a Dementia-friendly society.

Loneliness is experienced by many older people and associated with depressive symptoms. Childhood adverse events have been found to be a predictor of loneliness in young adults. We would like to investigate whether childhood traumatic events are associated with loneliness in older people with depression. We also explored what kinds of traumatic events are more related to loneliness and whether family support will modify the association of interest.

Older adults (≧60 years) with history of major depressive disorder were enrolled from outpatient clinics. Participants cannot be diagnosed as dementia. They received a series of questionnaires, including cumulative illness rating scales, Hamilton depressive and anxiety rating scales (HDRS and HARS), Geriatric depression scale(GDS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ), Chinese version of the family adaptation, partnership, growth, affection and resolve(APGAR), and Mini-mental status examination.

Fifty-four participants were enrolled. The average age was 68.8 years and female predominance (83.7%) with mean educational year of 10.4. Univariate analysis was performed first using LS score as dependent variable, and only those variables with p value less than 0.2 were put into multiple linear regression. In the multiple regression model, age, gender, education, GDS, HDAS were entered as covariates and CTQ was treated as independent variable. The results showed that CTQ score was positively associated with LS (ß=0.565, p<0.001). The family support, presented as APGAR score, was not modified the results. In the explore analysis, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect also showed positively associated with loneliness in the participants; however, physical abuse and sexual abuse did not have the same findings.

Childhood adverse events may be positively associated with loneliness in older people with depressive disorder after adjusting for confounders. We should pay more attention on the childhood traumatic events in these patients. In addition, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect rather than physical abuse and sexual abuse seemed to have more impact on the loneliness in these participants. However, some limitations, such as small sample size, recall bias of childhood events, difficulty of recall physical and sexual abuse, and other latent confounders, should be considered before making a final conclusion.

Older age bipolar disorder (OABD) is commonly defined as bipolar disorder in individuals aged 60 or more. General principles of pharmacotherapy in guidelines for treating OABD are greatly like those for younger adults. We aimed to investigate prescription changes among OABD patients discharged from two public mental hospitals in Taiwan from 2006 to 2019.

OABD patients discharged from the two study hospitals, from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2019 (n = 1072), entered the analysis. Prescribed drugs at discharge, including mood stabilizers (i.e., lithium, valproate, carbamazepine, and lamotrigine), antipsychotics (i.e., second- and first-generation antipsychotics; SGAs & FGAs), and antidepressants, were investigated. Complex polypharmacy was defined as the use of 3 or more agents among the prescribed drugs. Temporal trends of each prescribing pattern were analyzed using the Cochran-Armitage Trend test.

The most commonly prescribed drugs were SGAs (72.0%), followed by valproate (48.4%) and antidepressants (21.7%). The prescription rates of SGAs, antidepressants, antidepressants without mood stabilizers, and complex polypharmacy significantly increased over time, whereas the prescription rates of mood stabilizers, lithium, FGAs, and antidepressants plus mood stabilizers significantly decreased.

Prescribing patterns changed remarkably for OABD patients over a 14- year period. The decreased use of lithium and increased use of antidepressants did not reflect bipolar treatment guidelines. Future research should examine whether such prescribing patterns are associated with adverse clinical outcomes.

People are staying in the workforce longer with the employment rates of older adults rising considerably over the years. Particularly, the higher education sector is known to have an aging workforce where a large proportion of staff is older than 55 years. Psychological capital, which refers to an individual’s positive psychological state of development, includes four core dimensions: self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Understanding of the impact of psychological capital on wellbeing and mental health of working middle-aged to older adults is limited. This paper will present the survey outcomes on psychological capital, wellbeing and mental health of middle-aged and older university staff.

Data were collected using established Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ), Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS) and Positive Mental Health (PMH) tool.

The mean age of 29 survey respondents was 55.37 years (SD=4.26) with the majority being female (27; 90%) and, on average, worked at the university for 8.35 years (SD=5.92). Total mean scores for PsyCap, PWBS and PMH were 111.77 (SD=16.15); 231.37 (SD=36.15); and 31.43 (SD=4.58) respectively. PsyCap was moderately correlated with PMH (r=.546) and PWBS (r=.481) as well as PWBS subscales on positive relationships (r=.483), self-acceptance (r=.450) and environmental mastery (r=.558).

While limited by the small sample size, this study provides preliminary evidence that psychological capital can potentially positively influence well-being and mental health and that program focusing on improving psychological capital can be considered to improve well-being and mental health of middle-aged and older staff working in the higher education sector.