[Psychopathological characteristics of psychiatric disturbances in the elderly]

A series of studies have focused on the problem of identifying and defining the specific characteristics of senile psychiatric pathology with greater precision. The aim of the present study was to examine symptomatological aspects of a group of psychiatric patients divided into different age ranges. The possible presence of psychopathologically defined (e.g. phobia, obsession, convulsive symptoms, hallucinations, deliria) and more aspecific symptoms (e.g. those which are generically involutive, confusion, anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicide attempts) was assessed in a group of 2018 psychiatric out-patients. It was found that senile psychiatric pathology presents a symptomatology which is generally aspecific and not clearly defined, and that there are peculiarities which differentiate it from that in the adult.