[Late-onset dysthymic states]

Sixty patients with dysthymic states which had emerged in later age of 60-80 years were examined. Two clinical types of dysthymic states were described: anergic (20 patients) and hypothymic (40 patients). Different comorbid mental disorders--obsessive-phobic (14 cases), somatoform (10), personality deviations (20) and psycho-organic (7)--were found to be characteristic of late-onset dysthymic states. According to developmental features, late dysthymia was primary (first manifested in the elderly) and secondary (develops after several depressive episodes). In diagnostic terms, the former is considered as "dysthymia" (F34.1 ICD-10) and the latter--as "recurrent depressive disorder" (F33).