Selective review of age-related needs of women with schizophrenia

Recognizing that needs differ between men and women with schizophrenia and that they vary over time, this review attempts to categorize the needs that are relevant to younger and to older women.

This is a selective literature review focusing on topic areas the two authors determined to be most germane to women with schizophrenia. Articles were selected on the basis of currency, comprehensiveness, and study design. Particular attention was paid to the voices of the women themselves.

There is considerable overlap between the needs of younger and older women with schizophrenia, but as a general rule, younger women require preventive strategies to stop the escalation of illness while older women require recovery interventions to regain lost hopes and abilities.

There is clinical utility in cataloguing the needs of younger and older women with schizophrenia and conceptualizing interventions according to gender and age rather than viewing needed services along purely diagnostic lines.