In-home intervention can help decrease levels of depression in senior citizens, according to a study by the UW Health Promotion Research Center.

Paul Ciechanowski, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was lead author of the study. Results of the group's research appear in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers worked with 138 patients age 60 or older who had been diagnosed with depression. Participants were randomly divided into groups receiving usual care and those going through the Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives (PEARLS) treatment plan.

The PEARLS treatment included eight in-home visits from social workers over a 19-week period, in addition to follow-up phone calls. The plan helped seniors with problem solving, social and physical activities, planning pleasant activities, and antidepressant medication if necessary. Patients receiving usual care had letters sent to their primary physicians and social workers indicating their depression diagnoses and recommending treatment. All participants were free to seek additional primary or specialty mental health care.

Patients who received treatment through the PEARLS plan were five times as likely as non-participants to have at least a 50 percent reduction in depressive symptoms, researchers found. Some PEARLS patients were completely free of depression, and participants had greater health-related quality-of-life improvements.