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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Correlates of psychotic symptoms among elderly outpatients | | Author(s) | Suzanne Holroyd, Susan Laurie |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 14, no 5, May 1999 |
| Pages | pp 379-384 |
| Keywords | Psychoses ; Symptoms ; Out-patients ; Assessment procedures for mental patients ; Depression ; Confusion ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Psychotic symptoms presenting in late life can offer a diagnostic challenge to the clinician. In this US study, 140 geriatric patients were examined for psychotic symptoms and assessed on a number of demographic and clinical variables. Cognition was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Psychiatric diagnoses were made by DSM-III-R criteria. 38 (27%) had psychotic symptoms, delusions being the most common type. Patients with psychosis were significantly more likely to have a previous history of psychosis, to have a lower MMSE, and to live in a nursing home. Four diagnoses accounted for 79% of all psychotic patients. In order of frequency these were dementia, major depression, delirium, and organic psychosis (organic hallucinations, organic delusional disorder). Psychotic patients were significantly more likely to have a diagnosis of dementia, delirium or organic psychosis than non-psychotics, but depression was significantly more likely to occur in patients without psychosis. Although psychotic symptoms occur in a variety of illnesses, older patients with psychosis should be carefully evaluated for these disorders. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990825262 A |
| Classmark | EL: CT: LFB: DA:4C: ENR: EDC: 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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