Unrecognized psychiatric illness in elderly medical-surgical patients

Research diagnostic criteria were used in a structured interview to evaluate the presence of unrecognized psychiatric illness in 50 acute medical and surgical patients over the age of 65 at the La Jolla Veterans Administration Hospital; 24% of the subjects had unrecognized major mental disorders -- predominantly depression or alcoholism. The geriatric patients most likely to have unrecognized illness were older, widowed or divorced, had past jail and/or psychiatric hospital experiences, and gave histories of vascular disorders. The results are consistent with past literature on the elderly.