Correlates of psychotic symptoms among elderly outpatients

✍ Scribed by Suzanne Holroyd; Susan Laurie

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 152 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199905)14:5<379::aid-gps924>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

Psychotic symptoms presenting in late life can oer a diagnostic challenge to the clinician. In this study, 140 geriatric outpatients were prospectively examined for psychotic symptoms and assessed on a number of demographic and clinical variables. Cognition was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Exam. Psychiatric diagnoses were made by DSM-III-R criteria. Twenty-seven per cent (N 38) had psychotic symptoms, delusions being the most common type. Patients with psychosis were signi®cantly 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 79.5% of all psychotic patients. In order of frequency, these were dementia, major depression, delirium and organic psychosis (organic hallucinosis, organic delusional disorder). Psychotic patients were signi®cantly more likely to have a diagnosis of dementia, delirium or organic psychosis than non-psychotics, but depression was signi®cantly more likely to occur in patients without psychosis. Although psychotic symptoms occur in a variety of illnesses, elderly patients with psychosis should be carefully evaluated for these disorders.