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Prevalence of mental disorders in an urban sample examined at 70, 75 and 79 years of age
Author(s) -
Nilsson L. V.,
Persson G.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1984.tb02526.x
Subject(s) - sample (material) , medicine , demography , environmental health , psychiatry , gerontology , sociology , chromatography , chemistry
– The prevalence of mental disorders in a representative sample of old people in Gothenburg, Sweden, was studied at 70, 75 and 79. The study comprised 392 subjects at 70, 302 subjects at 75 and 203 at 79. A case was defined by cut‐off points on symptom and sign rating scales, and diagnoses were defined operationally as closely as possible to the ICD‐classification. The total psychiatric morbidity was 21.9, 24.2 and 31.0% in the three age groups. The prevalence of schizophrenic and paranoid syndromes was 0.5, 1.7 and 2.5% and of affective disorders 1.0, 2.3 and 0.5%. The prevalence of dementias of psychotic degree was 1.3, 2.3 and 6.9% and of asthenic neuroses corresponding to dementias of mild‐moderate degree 2.3, 4.0 and 9.4%. The prevalence of anxiety, depressive and obsessive‐compulsive neuroses of moderate‐severe degree was 6.6, 4.6 and 3.9% and of mild degree 7.9, 6.0 and 5.9%. The prevalence of active alcoholism in men was 4.2, 3.4 and 3.0% and in women 0.0% in all age groups. Current treatment was reported by 67–85% of subjects with psychoses, about one half of them in psychiatric services, and by 35–65% of subjects with neuroses, about one fifth of them in psychiatric services.