IntroductionLate-onset psychoses are a heterogeneous group of disorders whose nosology has been controversial throughout history. Several methodological limitations have made difficult the comparison among studies and, as a consequence, the research interest has been little, leading to the absence of late-onset schizophrenia and paraphrenia in current official classifications.Aims and methodologyTo highlight the specific symptoms of late-onset schizophrenia as well as its differences with other psychoses though the study of a case report.ResultsA 70-year-old woman developed psychotic symptoms during the last seven years, consisting of auditory and olfactory hallucinations, telepathic phenomena and injury delusions, erotomania and thought control, with a high level of systematization and fantasy. She was admitted in an inpatient unit. She was treated with risperidone and the psychotic symptoms got better. At the time of hospital discharge, hallucinations and delusional thoughts had disappeared and no behavioral or emotional disorder was observed. Some weeks later, risperidone had to be substituted by paliperidone due to side effects, such as tremor, sialorrhea and parkinsonism.ConclusionsLate-onset schizophrenic psychosis is not as exceptional as it has been traditionally considered. One of the main problems is that current classifications do not include specific diagnostic categories for cases of late or very-late-onset psychoses. It would be necessary that future ICD-11 and DSM-V classifications will include different-age criteria when diagnosing mental disorders.
Introduction: Delusional parasitosis, also known as Ekbom syndrome, is the most frequent among the somatic delusions. It may occur at any age but is more common in the elderly, particularly in females. It is a syndrome in which the patient has the false belief that he is infested by some type of insects, lice, worms or other invertebrates, and that they live or grow under their skin or inside their body. Psychiatric interventions are usually rejected by these patients and long-term treatments are frequently abandoned. Objectives and method: A clinical case was followed and reviewed to illustrate the links between somatic delusions, hypochondriasis, somatization and obsessive disorders. Results: A 58-year-old female presents delusions of infestation. She has a long history of somatization and hypochondria, which can be interpreted as a continuum in the onset of the delusional syndrome. In this case, delusions of infestation are projected onto a third person. Psychophramacological treatment with long acting injectable risperidone was then introduced, as an alternative to drugs previously used. Conclusions: The effectiveness of pimozide and risperidone for the Ekbom syndrome has been documented in the literature. In our case, we decided to introduce long acting injectable risperidone after several rejections or long-term discontinuation in oral treatments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.