Psychotic (delusional) major depression in late life: a clinical study

Abstract

The results of our study demonstrated that PMD in the elderly has a later age at onset.

Affective disorders in older inpatients

“…In particular, we did not find a higher rate of delusional symptomatology in the elder depressive patients. This is at variance with some other studies (Brodaty et al, 1991(Brodaty et al, , 1997Gournellis et al, 2001). One reason for this difference may be due to sample effects.…”

“…(2) More frequent occurrence of delusions (Brodaty et al, 1991(Brodaty et al, , 1997Gournellis et al, 2001) and cognitive impairment (Alexopoulos et al, 1993;Tarbuck and Paykel, 1995;van Reekum et al, 1999;Austin et al, 2001). (3) Higher frequency of suicides (Statistical Bureau of Germany, 1994;Yang et al, 2001).…”

Clinical and phenomenological comparisons of delusional and non‐delusional major depression in the Chinese elderly

“…Previous reports proposed that elderly delusional depressives, compared with non-delusional counterparts, presented with more severe depression, more psychomotor retardation, more family history, later age at onset and worse physical health (Baldwin, 1988;Simpson et al, 1999;Gournellis et al, 2001). Lower Mini-Mental State score was reported to be relevant to late-life delusional depression (La Rue et al, 1986).…”

Dimensional approach to delusions in psychotic depression in the elderly: factor structure and clinical correlates

“…Its strong positive correlations with HRSD score reflects the fact that in PMD delusions emerge in the context of intense lowering of mood, a fact also reflected in the treatment recommendations which favor the combination of an antipsychotic with an antidepressant or ECT. Its negative correlations with both age at index episode and duration of illnessgiven the geriatric nature of our sample-reflects the fact that delusional forms of depression peak around the age of 60 (Meyers and Greenberg, 1986;Parker et al, 1997;Gournellis et al, 2001;Kessing, 2006). In the sole available study of psychotic depressives this factor was devoid of any significant correlates (Meyers et al, 2006).…”

“…Thus far, the investigators of delusions of PMD in the elderly have mainly adopted a categorical approach to their study (Meyers and Greenberg, 1986;Baldwin, 1995;Gournellis et al, 2001). The only available dimensional study of PMD included patients of all ageranges (Meyers et al, 2006).…”