Study design of the Routine Outcome Monitoring for Geriatric Psychiatry & Science (ROM-GPS) project; a cohort study of older patients with affective disorders referred for specialised geriatric mental health care

Affective disorders, encompassing depressive-, anxiety-, and somatic symptom disorders, are the most prevalent mental disorders in later life. Treatment protocols and guidelines largely rely on evidence from RCTs conducted in younger age samples and ignore comorbidity between these disorders. Moreover, studies in geriatric psychiatry are often limited to the "younger old" and rarely include the most frail. Therefore, the effectiveness of...