An exploratory study on factors affect on Elderly Depression in Sri Lanka

This exploratory study tries to explore the factors affect on Elderly depression in a qualitative manner. In order to meet the objectives of present study it was carried out with ten elderly females and males of above 65 years who were clinically diagnosed with Depression were selected from the Psychiatric clinic, National Hospital in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Consent was received from the participants prior to the research carried out. This qualitative study was carried out using a semi structured interview and collected data were analyzed using a thematic analysis in which participants responses narrowed down in to particular themes. According to the thematic analysis it was found five main themes as factors that most of these elderly people suffer from depression due to the factors such as Past Failures, Worthlessness, Suicidal Thoughts, and Lack of Hopes about future, Loss of Energy. Results revealed that female people were likely to show depressive symptoms due to the matter of obsessive on their past failures and feel of worthlessness whilst more male people are suffering from suicidal thoughts, lack of hopes about future and loss of energy due to physical disabilities. Especially both male and female people have shown depression mainly focusing on of their life worth due their age.