Australian Rotary Health

Jessica Swain is a PhD (Clinical Psychology) candidate at The University of Newcastle. Jessica has a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) from The University of Newcastle and recently submitted the final requirements for a Master of Psychology (Work and Organisational) at The University of South Australia.
 

Jessica’s experiences have included roles in psychology– where she has worked with children and adults in the educational and organisational psychology sectors – and more recently in population health research – where she has been involved with general practitioners and community-dwelling elderly Australians, including people with dementia and their carers.
 

Previously working as a Project Manager within the Discipline of General Practice at The University of Newcastle, Jessica has gained sound experiences in community research with a focus on dementia.  Dementia and depression are areas of professional relevance and clinical interest for Jessica and, as such, her PhD research project focuses on dementia-depression differential diagnoses and comorbidities, and the associated quality of life outcomes for dementia sufferers and their carers.
 

As an early-career researcher Jessica has been active in the dissemination of dementia research findings including presentations and posters at the 2008 Dementia Collaborative Research Centre National Forum, 2008 GP & Primary Health Care (GP & PHC) conference, 2008 RACGP/WONCA international conference, 2009 Alzheimer’s Australia National Conference, Hammond Care 2009 Depression in the Elderly conference and 2009 International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease.
 

Jessica’s career aspirations include enhancing her skills as a psychologist whilst continuing her professional development in research, and facilitating the development of skills in both academia and in clinical settings. Jessica’s vision is for her research to broaden knowledge on the interplay between dementia and depression and how these conditions present to doctors in general practice. This would pave the way for the development of strategies to minimise burden and enhance the quality of life of people with dementia and their families; moving towards a future of world class models of depression-dementia care and prevention.
 

Differential diagnosis or comorbidity: Depression and dementia in community dwelling elderly Australians
 

The social and economic burden of depression and dementia is immense.
 

Depression is the most common emotional disorder in elderly people. They have a higher risk of depression because of bereavement, isolation, disease and functional impairment.
 

Dementia is the most expensive mental health item in Australia, costing the community over $6.6 billion. (Access Economics 2002) It is estimated that 2.8% of Australians will have dementia by 2050. Because over 80% of elderly people see their GP regularly, General Practitioners play a critical role in detecting and managing dementia.
 

Jessica Swain’s research examines the relationship between depression and dementia in elderly Australians living in community dwellings. Two key terms in this research project are:

     Differential diagnosis: evaluating diseases that have similar symptoms before determining a diagnosis and
     Comorbidity: the presence of coexisting diseases in a patient
 

A large number of people in Australia have depression and dementia – comorbidity. They also have overlapping symptoms that occur in both diseases. This makes diagnosing diseases (differential diagnosis) difficult for General Practitioners. Furthermore, previous research shows that depression heightens the loss of intellectual ability and reasoning skills in dementia patients. (Ritchie, Touchon & Ledea Sert, 1998) This further highlights the General Practitioners’ diagnostic dilemma! 
 

Despite the high prevalence of depression in elderly people and links between age and depression, there is a lack of information on depression in the population aged 75 and over.
 

This study expects to produce a wealth of new data on the development and progression of depression and dementia in elderly Australians.  It also aims to enhance the mental health and quality of life of elderly Australians by facilitating:
 

    ►  a deeper understanding of the impact of depression in this age group
    ►  an understanding of the depression/dementia relationship and the impact of these illness on older Australians and their families  
    ►  improve awareness of the impact of GP dementia and depression diagnoses on the quality of life outcomes of older people and their families 
    ►  pave the way for improvement in depression/dementia diagnostic success among General Practitioners