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Mental health problems in elderly people with and without Down's syndrome
Author(s) -
HAVEMAN M. J.,
MAASKANT M. A.,
SCHROJENSTEIN LANTMAN H. M.,
URLINGS H. F. J.,
KESSELS A. G. H.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.1994.tb00400.x
Subject(s) - dementia , mental health , down syndrome , psychiatry , psychology , elderly people , gerontology , medicine , clinical psychology , disease , pathology
. This article reports on age‐specific findings of mental health problems among residents with Down's syndrome (DS) (n=307) and without (non‐DS) (n=1274 in dutch group homes and institutes for people with mental retardation. Whereas a proportional increase of psychological problems was found for elderly DS persons with severe mental retardation, non‐DS residents did not show such age‐specific differences. High ratings of psychological problems for the elderly DS residents corresponded very well with the diagnosis of ‘dementia’ made by the physicians. Only for non‐DS persons with severe mental retardation was a proportional decrease of challenging behaviour found with advanced age. Whereas psychological problems in elderly DS persons could be explained for the greater part of the diagnosis ‘dementia’, challenging behaviour‐although also common in elderly DS‐was shown to be a more independent phenomenon. With regard to psychiatric diagnosis, non‐DS residents with mild retardation had six times as much a mental disorder, and non‐DS residents with severe or profound mental retardation had up to 15 times as much, compared with their DS peers.