Ahead of Mother’s Day on Sunday, a Taipei psychiatrist yesterday encouraged people to pay attention to the health of elderly mothers who live alone, as studies have shown that the prevalence of depression in elderly women is higher than in their male counterparts.
Shih Chia-tso (施佳佐), chief physician at the Shu-Tien Clinic’s psychiatry department, said signs of depression can show through physical conditions, such as loss of appetite, sleeping disorders, feeling physically uncomfortable or body pains.
She cited the case of a 74-year-old woman, surnamed Chen (陳), was was taken to the clinic by her children after they realized that her personality had significantly changed in the few months she had been living alone following her husband’s death.
Chen said that she was often tired, depressed, uninterested in anything, and complained of chest pains, headaches and insomnia, Shih said, while her children said that she had lost her appetite, was losing weight and was often unwilling to leave home.
Shih said Chen was diagnosed with a major depression disorder, and was treated with medication and psychotherapy.
The nation’s rapidly aging population, coupled with a low birth rate, means more elderly people are living alone and are often worried that no one will be around to help if an accident happens, Shih said.
Some risk factors that can trigger depression in the elderly include: living alone, illness, physical disability, bereavement, economic stress, empty-nest syndrome, bad parent-child relationships and dementia, she said.
Citing international studies that suggest depression is the second-biggest cause of disability and premature death in the world, she said the lifetime prevalence of major depression in females is about 20 percent, while it is about 10 percent for males.
More care and attention should be paid to elderly parents, including being aware of changes to their mental and physical health, she said.
“You can take her [your mother] to see a cardiologist if she suffers chest pain, but the examinations might show normal results, so you could also discuss with the cardiologist about getting her mental condition evaluated,” Shih said.
Some people do not like the idea of seeing a psychiatrist, so sometimes having a doctor make the suggestion makes it more acceptable, she said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai