Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:50:37.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changing Patterns in Mental Illness in the Elderly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Alexander B. Christie  and
Alexander B. Christie
Alexander B. Christie
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal, Dumfries DG1 4TG
Alexander B. Christie
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal, Dumfries DG1 4TG
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The study at Graylingwell Hospital conducted by Roth (1955) has in part been replicated in order to study the changing patterns of mental illness in the elderly over a 25-year period. Important changes in the diagnostic distribution and outcome of cases admitted have occurred. Functional illness has given way to dementia, not as a proportion of patients admitted but in the number of beds employed for their care 6 and 24 months after their index admission. Discharge rates for all diagnostic groups except acute confusional states, have undergone considerable change and death rates have fallen. The study has concentrated on the residual in-patient population, paying particular attention to increasing demand for beds for the dementing group. These changes have been quantified and reflect a four-fold increase in bed requirements for cases of dementia at two years. Despite a striking reduction in requirement for functional cases, there is an overall increase in bed requirement of 38 per cent at the two-year mark.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 140 , Issue 2 , February 1982 , pp. 154 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brothwood, J. (1971) The organization and development of services for the aged with special reference to the mentally ill. In Recent Developments in Psychogeriatrics (eds. Kay, D. W. K. and Walk, A.). British Journal of Psychiatry, Special Publication No 6. Ashford, Kent: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Ferguson Anderson, W. (1971) The inter-relationship between physical and mental disease in the elderly. In Recent Developments in Psychogeriatrics (eds. Kay, D. W. K. and Walk, A.). British Journal of Psychiatry, Special Publication No 6. Ashford, Kent: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Leading Article (1978) Dementia—the quiet epidemic. British Medical Journal, i, 1.Google Scholar
Little, J. C., Kerr, T. A. & McClelland, H. A. (1978) Where are the untreated depressives? British Medical Journal, i, 1593–4.Google Scholar
Post, F. (1966) Persistent Persecutory States of the Elderly, pp 40–1. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, R. A. (1965) The organisation of a diagnostic and treatment unit for the aged in a mental hospital In Psychiatric Disorders in the Aged, pp 186–93. (Report on the Symposium held by the World Psychiatric Association at the Royal College of Physicians, London).Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1955) The natural history of mental disorder in old age. Journal of Mental Science, 101, 281—301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Royal Medico-Psychological Association (1957) Report on the Course and Outcome of Mental Disorders in Old Age to the Council of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. Geriatric Sub-Committee of the Research and Clinical Section, RMPA.Google Scholar
Shulman, K. & Arte, T. (1978) Fall in admission rate of old people to psychiatric units. British Medical Journal, i, 156–8.Google Scholar
Williamson, J., Stokoe, I. H., Gray, S., Fisher, M., Smith, A., McGhee, A. & Stephenson, E. (1964) Old people at home—their unreported needs. Lancet, i, 1117–80.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.