Centre for Policy on Ageing



Cognitive impairment in elder patients with schizophrenia — age related changes
Author(s)	Philip D Harvey
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 16, no S1, December 2001
Pages	pp S78-S85
Keywords	Schizophrenia ; Cognitive impairment ; Biological ageing.
Annotation	Significant cognitive and functional deficits are commonly seen in older patients with schizophrenia, particularly those whose lifetime course of illness has been chronic. Risk factors factors for such decline include lower educational attainment and more severe positive symptoms, but do not include more severe symptoms of physical illness. These impairments have been shown to be discriminable from normal age-related changes and from changes associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In contrast, studies of those with no history of life-time institutional stay find no such evidence of either age-related change in cognitive functioning, longitudinal decline in cognitive or functional status. Since there is accumulating evidence of progressive brain changes over the lifespan in those with schizophrenia, the course of cognitive deficits in later life will remain an important topic, both for understanding the lifetime course of the disease and for developing interventions aimed at reducing disability in the illness. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020206001 A
Classmark	ELK: E4: BH
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.