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Psychotic (delusional) major depression in late life: a clinical study
Author(s) -
Gournellis Rossetos,
Lykouras Lefteris,
Fortos Andreas,
Oulis Panagiotis,
Roumbos Vassilis,
Christodoulou George N.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.483
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , delusion , psychiatry , rating scale , psychology , age of onset , psychotic depression , hamilton rating scale for depression , delusional disorder , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , clinical psychology , psychosis , medicine , pediatrics , major depressive disorder , disease , mood , developmental psychology , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract An Erratum has been published for this article in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 16(11) 2001, 1085–1091.Background Psychotic (delusional) major depression (PMD) in the elderly is a common condition in inpatient settings. There is evidence that late age onset depressives are more likely to be psychotic. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency, sociodemographic, and clinical characteristics of PMD in hospitalized elderly depressives. Methods The sample consisted of 118 elderly patients consecutively admitted at three different clinics. All patients fulfilled DSM‐IV criteria for major depression disorder and were diagnosed on the basis of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐IV (SCID). The subjects were also assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and a physical health rating scale. Results PMD was positively associated with age of onset of depression. The PMD patients were also more severely depressed, more psychomotorically retarded and referred more past psychotic depressive episodes. Furthermore, age at onset influenced the type of delusions, so that PMD patients with aged over 60 at onset expressed delusions of hypochondriacal and nihilistic content more frequently. Conclusions The results of our study demonstrated that PMD in the elderly has a later age at onset. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.