A chart review study of late-onset and early-onset schizophrenia

Am J Psychiatry. 1989 Dec;146(12):1568-74. doi: 10.1176/ajp.146.12.1568.

Abstract

This chart review study compared 54 schizophrenic patients with onset of illness after age 45 years to 54 young and 22 elderly patients with early-onset schizophrenia (before age 45). The index group was more likely to have visual, tactile, and olfactory hallucinations; a greater number of different types of hallucinations; persecutory delusions; and premorbid schizoid personality traits, and was less likely to have thought disorder and affective flattening, than was either comparison group. Among the two elderly groups, index patients had more auditory and visual sensory impairment. Nearly half (48.1%) of the index patients responded to neuroleptic treatment with complete remission.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Antipsychotic Agents / therapeutic use
  • Auditory Perception
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Delusions / diagnosis
  • Delusions / psychology
  • Female
  • Hallucinations / diagnosis
  • Hallucinations / psychology
  • Hospital Records
  • Hospitalization
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Risk Factors
  • Schizoid Personality Disorder / diagnosis
  • Schizoid Personality Disorder / psychology
  • Schizophrenia / diagnosis*
  • Schizophrenia / drug therapy
  • Schizophrenia / genetics
  • Schizophrenic Psychology
  • Smell
  • Touch
  • Visual Perception

Substances

  • Antipsychotic Agents