Depression at the end of life: Podcast with Elissa Kozlov and Claire Ankuda
You\u2019ve probably heard patients say, \u201cOf course I\u2019m depressed, I\u2019m dying. Wouldn\u2019t you be?\u201d This is a fundamental question - to what extent are depressive symptoms \u201cnormal\u201d at the end of life? To what extent are they maladaptive, a fancy word for psychological conditions that have a negative impact on your life. In this week\u2019s GeriPal podcast we talked with Elissa Kozlov, a psychologist-researcher at Rutgers, and Claire Ankuda, a palliative care physician-researcher at Mt. Sinai about their JAGS paper describing the epidemiology of depressive symptoms in the last year of life. This was an interesting conversation, as Drs. Kozlov and Ankuda are pushing the boundaries of how we conceptualize depressive symptoms near the end of life. Their work suggests that depression is far more common than we suspect clinically. And they chose a great song - Hurt as arranged by Johnny Cash (not the Nine Inch Nails original). Enjoy! -@AlexSmithMD