TITLE:
Assessing symptoms profile and correlates of very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis (VLOSLP)
AUTHORS:
Maryam Sehatpour, Ali Javadpour
KEYWORDS:
Late Life Psychosis; VLOSLP; Symptoms; Correlates
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Aging Research,
Vol.2 No.1,
February
22,
2013
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.