[A short questionnaire as a means of screening for psychiatric disorders in the aged]

The authors elaborated a brief questionnaire of mental health of old people. They discuss the the suitability of the self-evaluating part of the questionnaire for detection of mental disorders. Hundred and forty subjects above 65 years of age were examined: living in their homes or hospitalized at the psychiatric clinic. The mean score of the self-evaluating part of the questionnaire in the group of healthy and mentally ill differs significantly. The sensitivity of the self-evaluating part for the non-differentiated group of patients is 62.07% and the specificity is 73.08%. Self-evaluation with the best reliability differentiates from healthy subjects the group of depressive patients (sensitivity 82.76%). It was revealed that self-evaluation can help also with detection of dementia (sensitivity (61.11%). An enhanced discriminating sensitivity of the questionnaire is expected from a combination of self-evaluation with items expressing objective evaluation. The authors emphasize the possibility to entrust the questionnaire to paramedical workers, and its non-pretentious character which makes it suitable for old people.