Psychology in practice: Guidelines for the provision of psychological services for older adults

The practice of psychology covers the range of ages from conception through to the end of life and palliative care. Psychologists practice in a variety of roles, but the majority of these roles involve interactions with nonprofessionals of varying ages. These interactions are governed by codes of ethical practice, whether these are developed by the funding bodies for research activities, professional associations, or regulatory bodies. Ethical codes vary in their format and emphasis, but all have the protection of the public as a major purpose. Often there are special provisions in these codes for particular populations or circumstances. Here we describe the development of ethical guidelines for the practice of psychology with older adults in Australia and report on those guidelines and their supporting literature.

Genetic screening for susceptibility to depression: can we and should we?

Objective: To summarize current knowledge about genetic susceptibility to mood disorders and examine ethical and policy issues that will need to be addressed if robustly replicated susceptibility alleles lead to proposals to screen and intervene with persons at increased genetic risk of developing mood disorders. Method: Empirical studies and reviews of the genetics of unipolar and bipolar depression were collected via MEDLINE and psycINFO database searches. Results: A number of candidate genes for depression have been identified, each of which increases the risk of mood disorders two- or threefold. None of the associations between these alleles and mood disorders have been consistently reported to date. Conclusions: Screening the population for genetic susceptibility to mood disorders is unlikely to be a practically useful policy (given plausible assumptions). Until there are effective treatments for persons at increased risk, screening is arguably unethical. Screening within affected families to advise on risks of developing depression would entail screening children and adolescents, raising potentially serious ethical issues of consent and stigmatization. Genetic research on depression should continue under appropriate ethical guidelines that protect the interests of research participants.