[Risk indicators of mental decompensation in elderly subjects. Current results of the Décines-Meyzieu study started...

A prospective survey of the risk indicators of psychic decompensation in the elderly (over 65) has been going on since 1978 among the old population of two cities in the district of Rhône (France). Every other year 3,000 elderly people of these two cities have had to answer a medico-psycho-social form. The different care and aid structures allow us to gather the psychiatric decompensations and to compare this pathological group to the control group out of the population which has not decompensated. The results show 28 risk indicators which are criticized in this paper.