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The Social Breakdown Syndrome in the Elderly Population Living in the Community: the Helping Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

T. S. Radebaugh ,
F. J. Hooper  and
E. M. Gruenberg
T. S. Radebaugh*
Affiliation:
Geriatrics Branch, National Institute on Ageing
F. J. Hooper
Affiliation:
Maryland Medical Research Institute
E. M. Gruenberg
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
*
Geriatrics Branch, National Institute on Ageing, Building 31, Room SC-21, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20205, USA
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Extract

A representative sample of elderly people residing in the community was examined to establish their psychiatric status. An interview with a close friend or relative, focusing on a one-week period in 1981, was used to investigate each subject's functional limitations and troublesome behaviour, these being the two components of the Social Breakdown Syndrome. The data from the sample were weighted to allow estimates of the characteristics of the general population. No cases of SBS at its most extreme were identified, and almost the entire population was found to be functioning at an adequate or near-adequate level: all cases of severe SBS were attributable to troublesome behaviour. Severe SBS was shown to increase with age and to be most common in non-white males. Persons with dementing disorders were more likely than their non-demented counterparts to show severe/moderate SBS, but in the majority of cases of SBS there was no mental disorder.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 151 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 341 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

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