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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Dual diagnosis in elders discharged from a psychiatric hospital | | Author(s) | Carol E Blixen, Graham J McDougall, Lee-Jen Suen |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 12, no 3,, March 1997 |
| Pages | pp 307-313 |
| Keywords | Alcoholism ; Drug taking ; Mental disorder ; Depression ; Psychiatric units ; Admission ; Correlation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Recent evidence indicates those aged 60 and over experience significant alcohol and substance abuse problems. A combination of alcoholism and depression is likely to increase the relative risk of suicide. The prevalence and correlates of dual diagnosis (a psychiatric disorder together with alcohol and/or drug addiction) in older psychiatric in-patients are examined, using variables on 101 older people discharged from three psychiatric hospitals: length of hospital stay, psychiatric and medical diagnoses, medications, and history of suicidal ideation or intent. The main psychiatric disorder diagnosis was depression. Over one third had a substance abuse disorder; almost three-quarters of this 'dual diagnosis' group abused alcohol; 29% abused both alcohol and other substances. Significantly more in the dual diagnosis group made a suicide attempt prior to hospital admission. These findings suggest the need for routine use of diagnostic assessment and screening for substance abuse and mental disorders. |
| Accession Number | CPA-970807223 A |
| Classmark | ETA: ETD: E: ENR: LDL: QKH: 49: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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