Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T20:59:41.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mental disorders among the community-dwelling elderly in Dublin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Michael Kirby ,
Irene Bruce ,
Alicja Radic ,
Davis Coakley  and
Brian A. Lawlor
Michael Kirby*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry for the Elderly and Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital
Irene Bruce
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital
Alicja Radic
Affiliation:
Health Research Board, 73 Lower Baggot St, Dublin 2, Ireland
Davis Coakley
Affiliation:
Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital
Brian A. Lawlor
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry for the Elderly and Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing, St James's Hospital
*
Dr Michael Kirby. Mercer's Institute for Research on Ageing. St James's Hospital, Dublin 8. Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

The prevalence of mental disorders among the community-dwelling elderly in the catchment area of a psychiatry for the elderly service in Dublin was determined.

Method

A sample of 1232 individuals aged 65 years and over, identified from general practitioner practice lists, was interviewed using the Geriatric Mental State–AGECAT package.

Results

Depression and organic disorder occurred with prevalences of 10.3 and 4.1%, respectively. Depression diagnostic cases had comorbid anxiety at case level in 17.3% and at sub-case level in a further 59.9%. Organic diagnostic cases had comorbid depressive or anxiety symptoms, at case or sub-case level, in 32%

Conclusions

Depression is the most common mental disorder among the elderly in Dublin. The frequency of anxiety symptoms in the presentation of depression may be a factor in the under-diagnosis or misdiagnosis of depression in the community-dwelling elderly. Comorbid anxiety and depression in organic disorder may represent treatable symptoms.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 171 , Issue 4 , October 1997 , pp. 369 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM–III). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Bridges, K. & Goldberg, A. (1985) Somatic presentations of DSM–III psychiatric disorders in primary care. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 29, 563–569.Google Scholar
Copoland, J. R. M., Kolleher, M. J., Kellett, J. M., et al (1976) A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly: the Geriatric Mental State, I: development and reliability. Psychological Medicine, 6, 439–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copoland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E. & Griffiths-Jonos, H. M. (1986) A computerized psychiatric diagnostic system and case nomenclature for elderly subjects: GMS and AGECAT. Psychological Medicine. 16, 89–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copoland, J. R. M., Kolleher, M. J., Wood, M., et al (1987a) Range of mental illness among the elderly in the community: prevalence in Liverpool. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 815–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copoland, J. R. M., Gurland, B. J., Dewey, M. E., et al (1987b) Is there more dementia, depression and neurosis in New York? A comparative study of the elderly in New York and London using the computer diagnosis AGECAT. british Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 466–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copoland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E. & Griffiths-Jonas, H. H. (1990) Dementia and depression in elderly persons: AGECAT compared with DSM–III and pervasive illness. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 5, 47–51.Google Scholar
Hofman, A., Rocca, W. A., Brayne, C., et al (1991) The prevalence of dementia in Europe: A collaborative study of 1980–1990 findings. International Journal of Epidemiology, 20, 736–748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, E. M. (1971) The Fisher–Yates exact test on unequal sample sizes. Psychometrika, 37, 103–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawior, B. A., Radic, A., Bruce, I., et al (1994) Prevalence of mental illness in an elderly community dwelling population using AGECAT. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 11, 157–159.Google Scholar
Livingston, G., Sax, K., Willison, J., et al (1990) The Gospel Oak study stage 11: The diagnosis of dementia in the community. Psychological Medicine, 20, 881–891.Google Scholar
Lobo, A., Saz, P., Marcos, G., et al (1995) The prevalence of dementia and depression in the elderly community in a Southern European population: The Zaragoza study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 497–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Council for the Elderly (1996) Mental Disorders in Older Irish People: Incidence, Prevalence and Treatment. Report No. 45. Dublin: National Council for the Elderly.Google Scholar
Saunders, P. A., Copeland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E., et al (1993) The prevalence of dementia, depression and neurosis in later life: the Liverpool MRC–ALPHA study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 22, 838–847.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.