Age presents many psychiatric problems. Among them is that of neurotic illness. This paper describes a study of various aspects of neurotic illness in the elderly. Since it would be unwise to assume that conditions governing neurosis in adult life pertain in the geriatric age group, an attempt has been made to reduce prior assumptions about the condition to a minimum. Age and brain damage were not associated with neuroticism. Minor differences were found between affective neurotics and other neurotics, and affective neurosis was associated with hospitalization, unlike the other neuroses of old age.
References
1.
BenaimS. (1956). Obsessional Neurosis in Old Age. Dissertation submitted to London University.
2.
BremerJ. A. (1951). Social psychiatric investigation of a small community in Northern Norway. Acta psychiat. et neurol. (supp. 62), pp. 1–166.
3.
BusseE. W. (1961). Psychoneurotic reactions and defence mechanisms in the aged, in Psychopathology of Ageing, Grune and Stratten.
4.
CameronN. (1956), in Mental Disorders in Later Life, Ed. KaplanO. J.Stanford Univ. Press.
5.
ClowH. E.AllenE. B. (1951). Manifestations of psychoneuroses occurring in later life. Geriatrics, 6: 31.
6.
CulpanR. H.DaviesB. M.OppenheimA. N. (1960). Incidence of psychiatric illness among hospital outpatients: an application of the Cornell Medical Index. Brit. Med. J., 5176: 855.
7.
CummingE.HenryW. E. (1961). in ‘Growing Old’. Basic Books Inc., New York.
8.
DiethelmO.RockwellF. V. (1943). Psychopathology of aging. Amer. J. Psychiat., 99: 553.
9.
Essen-MollerE. (1956). Individual traits and morbidity in Swedish rural population. Acta psychiat. et neurol. Scandinav. (supp. 100), pp. 1–160.
10.
FinneyD. J.LatschaR.BennettB. M.HsuP. (1963), in ‘Tables for Testing Significance in a 2 × 2 Contingency Table’. Camb. Univ. Press.
11.
FishF. (1962). Schizophrenia. John Wright, Bristol.
12.
GrayS.WilliamsonJ.StokoeI. H. (1964). Old people at home: their unreported needs. Lancet, 1: 1117.
13.
HowellsJ. G. (1962). The nuclear family as the functional unit in psychiatry. J. ment. Sci., 108: 675.
14.
InglisJ. (1959). ‘A paired-associate learning test for use with elderly psychiatric patients. J. ment. Sci., 105: 440.
15.
KayD. W.BeamishP.RothM. (1964). Old age mental disorders in Newcastle upon Tyne. I. A study of prevalence. Brit. J. Psychiat., 110: 146.
16.
LawtonG. (1939). Mental hygiene at senescence. Ment. Hyg., 23: 257.
17.
LewisA. (1943). Social effects of neurosis. Lancet, 1: 167.
18.
MaxwellA. E. (1961), in ‘Analysing Qualitative Data’. Methuen Monograph.
19.
Mayer-GrossW.SlaterE.RothM. (1954), in ‘Clinical Psychiatry’. Cassell & Co. Ltd., London.
20.
McDonaldC. (1965). Psychoneurosis in the elderly. J. postgrad. Med., 38: 432.
21.
NielsenJ. (1963). Geronto-psychiatric period-prevalence investigation in a geographically delimited population. Acta psychiat. Scand., 38: 307.
22.
PerlinS.ButlerR. N. (1963). in ‘Human Ageing’. U.S. Public Health Service Publication, No. 986.
23.
PostF. (1958). Social factors in old age psychiatry. Geriatrics, 13: 576.
24.
PostF. (1965), in ‘The Clinical Psychiatry of Late Life’. Pergamon Press.
25.
PrimroseE. J. R. (1962), in ‘Psychological Illness: A Community Study’. London.
26.
ReesL. (1949). Neurosis in women's auxiliary services. J. ment. Sci., 95: 880.
27.
RothschildD. (1956), in ‘Mental Disorders of Later Life, Ed. KaplanO. J.Stanford Univ. Press.
28.
SainsburyP.GradJ. C. (1963). Mental illness and the family. Lancet, 1: 544.
29.
ShepherdM.GruenbergF. M. (1957). The age for neuroses. Millbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 35: 258.
30.
VispoR. H. (1962). Pre-morbid personality in the functional psychoses of the senium. A comparison of ex-patients with healthy controls. J. ment. Sci., 108: 790.
31.
YarrowM. R.BlankP.YoumansF. G.QuimO. W.SteinJ. (1963), in ‘Human Ageing’, Ed. BirrenJ. E., U.S. Public Health Service Publication, No. 986.