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Mania in old age: A First Prospective Study
Author(s) -
Broadhead Jeremy,
Jacoby Robin
Publication year - 1990
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.930050403
Subject(s) - mania , prospective cohort study , medicine , pediatrics , cognition , psychiatry , psychology , bipolar disorder
In a first prospective study of manic illness in old age, 35 manic patients over the age of 60 were compared with 35 patients below the age of 40 on clinical and cognitive measures. CT scan comparisons were made between the elderly patients and age‐matched healthy controls. Contrary to previously accepted teaching, the elderly were effectively clinically indistinguishable from the younger patients, except that the latter experienced more severe illnesses. CT and cognitive results, however, in the elderly group showed evidence of changes which support the view that cerebral organic factors play an important role in the genesis of affective disorder in old age.