The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of diagnosis and treatment of depression with anhedonic and dysphoric symptom presentation, using the Minimum Data Set 2.0. Participants were from two sectors of long-term care: 70 nursing home residents and 92 residents in a Veterans' Care Service. The samples differed in their sex distribution and in cognition. A series of logistic regressions that controlled for demographics, type of facility, and cognition showed that dysphoric symptoms predicted diagnosed depression, whereas anhedonic symptoms predicted anti-depressant medication use without a concomitant diagnosis. The findings are consistent with a hypothesis that, in long-term care settings, anhedonic symptoms contribute less to a diagnosis of depression than do dysphoric symptoms. However, findings that anhedonic symptoms relate to treatment have implications for care-planning protocols.
