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AMONG first admissions to U.S. public mental hospitals in 1960, 24 percent of the patients were 65 years of age or older. Of these aged patients, 80 percent were diagnosed as having mental diseases of the senium. This diagnosis ranks close to schizophrenia, the leading illness among U.S. mental hospital patients never previously admitted to a psychiatric facility (1). Definitive information on the characteristics, of the aged mentally ill was previously reported from the results of a 1948-52 study of first admissions to public mental hospitals in Ohio (2). This report presents a subsequent comparative analysis of 4,443 patients diagnosed as having diseases of the senium on their first admission to these Ohio hospitals during the 3?/2 years from July 1958 to December 31, 1961. The earlier study centered on the 1950 census; this study centered on the 1960 census. The diagnosis was assigned to these patients according to the classification in the 1952 revision of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic and statistical manual. Mental diseases of the senium comprise two classifications: chronic brain syndrome associated with (a) cerebral arteriosclerosis (15.0) and (b) senile bra-in disease (17.1). Of the 4,443 patients in this study, 82.9 percent ha,d cerebral arteriosclerosis and 17.1 percent had senile brain disease. The corresponding 1960 national percentages were 66.3 and 33.7. Although the revised diagnostic classification does not restrict mental diseases of the senium to a psychotic disorder as did the previous classification, more than 90 percent of 4,443 patients were so classified on admission to the Ohio hospitals during the study period. |
