Konstitutionsspezifische Leitlinien bei den Psychosen des höheren Lebensalters

Delusional Theme, Sex and Age

“…The num ber of hypochondriacal themes with an ini tial onset peak in younger years decreases in middle age and again increases in an ad vanced age. These results are in accordance with the descriptions of von Orelli [27], Hirschmann et al [16], Doty [13], and Berner [2], who found a concentration of hypochondriacal delusions in younger pa tients. Due to the low number of advanced age patients in Berner's case sample, he could only indicate, by means of single case descriptions, the renewed increase in the choice of themes in later life periods (illus trated by Ddrner and Winzenried [12] or Brodscholl and Strotzka [9]).…”

“…In line with the results of Kraepelin [22] and Bleuler [8], and also with those of other authors [12,13,16,20,27], we found the theme of persecution in two thirds of the patients only after age 30, increasing to a fre quency maximum at age 50. In accordance with previous investigations [2,9], we saw a significantly later choice of the theme of per secution in women than in men.…”

Key papers in old age psychiatry series Editor: Alistair Burns

“…Late, as contrasted with early, schizophrenics did not show any measurable characteristics of body-build which set them apart from affective psychotics. Some workers (Hirschmann and Klages, 1957) reported in a proportion of elderly schizophrenics physical stigmata of an 'inter-sex type', as well as other features resembling the 'dysplastic' characteristics of younger patients; but these views were only of an impressionistic kind, and were not confirmed by more precise anthropometric studies (Lodge-Patch et al, 1965). There is general agreement concerning hereditary factors: late onset schizophrenics have slightly more schizophrenic first-degree relatives than healthy subjects, but far fewer than probands with early onsets of the illness.…”

Aspects of Psychiatry in the Elderly

“…In many there was evidence that the disorder had been under way for some years, but most workers excluded patients whose symptoms could be traced back earlier than their 50th birthday. Among them are Lechler (1950), Hirschmann & Klages (1957), Klages (1961), Janzarik (1957) and Schimmelpenning (1965) in Germany, Funding (1961) in Denmark, and in this country Fish (1960), Kay & Roth (1961) and Kay (1963). It has become established that far from being very rare, some 10% of first admissions after the age of 60 exhibit schizophrenic symptoms of late onset.…”