diff --git a/cmake/catkin_package.cmake b/cmake/catkin_package.cmake
index 8ef6c48a9..ee47981a0 100644
--- a/cmake/catkin_package.cmake
+++ b/cmake/catkin_package.cmake
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@
 # :param DEPENDS: a list of CMake projects which this project depends
 #   on.  Since they might not be *find_packagable* or lack a pkg-config
 #   file their ``INCLUDE_DIRS`` and ``LIBRARIES`` are passed directly.
-#   This requires that it has been ``find_package``\ -ed before.
+#   This requires that it has been ``find_package``\ -ed before and all
+#   variables (``<name>_FOUND``, ``<name>_INCLUDE_DIRS``, etc.) have the
+#   same case as this argument.
 # :type DEPENDS: list of strings
 # :param CFG_EXTRAS: a CMake file containing extra stuff that should
 #   be accessible to users of this package after
@@ -144,7 +146,7 @@ function(_catkin_package)
     endif()
     if("${second_item}" STREQUAL "COMPONENTS")
       list(GET depend_list 0 depend_name)
-      if(NOT ${${depend_name}_FOUND})
+      if(NOT ${depend_name}_FOUND)
         message(FATAL_ERROR "catkin_package() DEPENDS on '${depend}' which must be find_package()-ed before")
       endif()
       message(WARNING "catkin_package() DEPENDS on '${depend}' which is deprecated. find_package() it before and only DEPENDS on '${depend_name}' instead")
@@ -157,9 +159,12 @@ function(_catkin_package)
           #message(WARNING "catkin_package() DEPENDS on catkin package '${depend_name}' which is deprecated. Use CATKIN_DEPENDS for catkin packages instead.")
           list(APPEND _PROJECT_CATKIN_DEPENDS ${depend_name})
         else()
-          if(NOT ${${depend_name}_FOUND})
+          if(NOT ${depend_name}_FOUND)
             message(FATAL_ERROR "catkin_package() DEPENDS on '${depend_name}' which must be find_package()-ed before. If it is a catkin package it can be declared as CATKIN_DEPENDS instead without find_package()-ing it.")
           endif()
+          if(NOT DEFINED ${depend_name}_INCLUDE_DIRS AND NOT DEFINED ${depend_name}_LIBRARIES)
+            message(WARNING "catkin_package() DEPENDS on '${depend_name}' but neither '${depend_name}_INCLUDE_DIRS' nor '${depend_name}_LIBRARIES' is defined.")
+          endif()
           list(APPEND PROJECT_DEPENDENCIES_INCLUDE_DIRS ${${depend_name}_INCLUDE_DIRS})
           list(APPEND PROJECT_DEPENDENCIES_LIBRARIES ${${depend_name}_LIBRARIES})
         endif()