Interviewed 140 elderly medical patients and found that the measured 22 percent prevalence of mental impairment was not reflected in the patients' utilization of mental health services or in their presenting complaints to their physicians. Subsequent interviews with their physicians revealed inadequate recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of…

Multidisciplinary team identified hysterical behavior, rather than depression, as one form of pseudodementia in many cases of cognitive impairment observed in geriatric patients. Seven cases required thorough medical and neuropsychological assessment and careful functional analysis of patients' behavior patterns to determine the adaptive utility…

The authors tested the discriminative effectiveness of two psychiatric screening instruments for a gerontological population. Results show that while one scale was more correct in identifying the impaired group, the second was more correct in identifying the unimpaired subjects. (SE)

Found no significant differences in burden for relatives of demented and depressed patients admitted to geriatric psychiatry inpatient unit. Although at follow-up depressed patients were more improved than demented patients, their caregivers did not experience any greater decrease in burden. Families of depressed patients may require as much…

Evaluated 150 geriatric medical inpatients for psychological dysfunction. Found 27.3 percent of subjects had at least one psychological disorder and 15.3 percent of total sample had a depressive disorder. Comorbid depression was associated with greatest level of psychological distress and dysfunction, and with poorest physical health status.…

Background: Gender bias has been reported in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with a variety of illnesses. In the context of our 10-station fourth year Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation, we queried whether this could influence diagnosis in a geriatric case. Case writers hypothesized that, due to this bias, the female standardized…