Assessing symptoms profile and correlates of very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis (VLOSLP)

Maryam Sehatpour, Ali Javadpour

Department of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Research Centre for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/aar.2013.21003                

Abstract

Objective: While the most common causes of late life psychosis are factors other than primary psychosis, but the nosology and clinical features of late life, primary psychotic is a matter of controversy. The goal of this study was to define some correlates and symptoms profile of very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis among an Iranian elderly population presenting with psychosis. Method: From 201 psychotic elderly patients, 39 (19.4%) subjects with the most possible diagnosis of very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis were selected. Socio demographic characteristics, past psychiatric history, family history of psychiatric problems, personality traits, cognitive status, history of stressful life events, and burden of medical problems assessed and compared between patients and 39 age and sex mathed controls. Results: The mean age of study sample was 76.9 years. Of 39 patients with VLOSLP, 13 (33.3%) were male and 26 (66.6%) were female. In 32 patients (82.05%) some sorts of hallucinatory experiences were detected. Visual hallucinations were the most common types of hallucinations (69.2%) followed by auditory hallucinations (51.35%) and tactile hallucinations (4%). Persecutory delusions (59%); delusions of references (20.5%); and partition delusions (15.4%) were the most common types of delusions. Significant proportion suffered from some sort of sensory deficit like visual or auditory deficits. There was no significant difference in terms of history of traumatic life events, cognitive function; cumulative burden of medical conditions and personality traits between patients and healthy controls (P > 0.05) Conclusions: Female involved two times more than male. The most common types of psychotic symptoms were visual hallucinations and persecutory delusions. Except sex, exploring other demographics, psychological and physical correlates for VLSOLP patients was not conclusive. More controlled studies using neuroimaging and biomarkers are needed in this issue.

Keywords

Late Life Psychosis; VLOSLP; Symptoms; Correlates

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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