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Psychiatric morbidity among continuing care geriatric inpatients
Author(s) -
Shah Ajit,
Phongsathorn Virach,
George Collette,
Bielawska Celia,
Katona Cornelius
Publication year - 1992
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.930070711
Subject(s) - dementia , geriatric depression scale , depression (economics) , medicine , receiver operating characteristic , cutoff , psychiatry , geriatrics , memory clinic , depressive symptoms , cognition , disease , physics , quantum mechanics , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract This study examines the point prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among continuing care geriatric inpatients and the performance of screening questionnaires in detecting such morbidity. From a sample of 74 patients it was possible to carry out complete dementia ratings in 53 patients and depression ratings in 52 patients. Eighty‐three per cent of the patients assessed had dementia and 48% had significant depressive symptoms. Screening for dementia with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) had 100% sensitivity and 78% specificity. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) had 80% sensitivity and 64% specificity at the conventional cutoff of 10/11. Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis suggested that a 12/13 cutoff gave the best sensitivity (75%) and specificity (73%) values for depressive symptoms. Among patients with dementia a cutoff score of 12/13 on the GDS also gave optimal sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values. The GDS revealed good test–retest stability in the whole sample (tau = +0.55, p < 0.001) and the demented subgroup (tau = +0.52, p < 0.001).