Incidence of Mental Illness in the Aged: Unmasking the Effects of a Diagnosis of Chronic Brain Syndrome

Abstract

A combination of three psychiatric screening tests was used to uncover the extent of affective-psychotic symptoms, the indications of "chronic brain syndrome," and the perceptual limitations among two selected populations of elderly persons. It was found that 25 percent of 48 residents in a home for the aged, and 9 percent of 45 members in a social club, had four or more affective-psychotic com-

The Prevalence of Neuropsychiatric Disorders in a Nursing Home Population

“…In 1962, Goldfarb' found 87% of the residents in nursing homes to have &dquo;chronic organic brain syndromes.&dquo; Over the last 20 years, a number of investigators have confirmed this observation. [2][3][4][5] Although informative, these studies have a number of limitations. First, none of the studies used psychiatric diagnostic criteria such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, ed 3, Revised (DSM III-R) .6 Consequently, it is difficult to generalize these results to current concepts in psychiatric diagnosis.…”

O uso do "Face-Hand Test" como instrumento para rastrear as síndromes psicorgânicas: estudo piloto

“…O FHT-R mostrou-se um instrumento útil para detectação de distúrbios orgânicos em diferentes ambientes de estudo 6,7,13 e opera relativamente bem sem muita interferência de fatores culturais. Neste estudo piloto a versão reduzida do FHT mostrou-se mais específico do que sensí-vel (a sensibilidade foi 60% e a especificidade 94%).…”

“…The FHT-R has been regarded as a useful test for the clinical assessment of organic mental disorder in a variety of settings 6,7,13 , and it is a relatively "cultural free" examination. In this pilot study the reduced version of the Face-Hand Test was shown to be a more specific than sensitive test (the sensitivity was 60% and the specificity 94%).…”

“…The Face Hand Test (FHT) is a clinical test which has been designed to detect Organic Brain Syndrome (OBS) in elderly population 8 , and it has already been applied to hospitalized medical patients 13 and at nursing homes or homes for the aged 6,7,13 . In addition, it has been added to other assessment tools such as Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS) and Comprehensive Assessment and Referral Evaluation (CARE) to evaluate cognitive impairment 5,11 .…”

Heterogeneity and comorbidity in dementia‐depression syndromes

“…Studies of the psychopathology of dementing disorders have demonstrated that depressive manifestations occur in approximately half of the demented patients (Ernst et al, 1977). In a recent series reported by Wragg and Jeste (1989), about half of the Alzheimer's patients had depressed mood.…”