[Nosologic position of confabulatory-paraphrenic psychoses of old age]

Three groups of elderly patients were studied. The state of these patients was characterized by confabulatory-paraphrenic delusion which developed for the first in senility. The nozological character of the first two groups of patients did not cause any doubt about their close connection with senile dementia. The third group of patients varied only by the presence of the confabulatory-paraphrenic delusion without any signs of endogenous or senile-atrophic processes. The comparative study of the psychopathological traits of confabulatory-paraphrenic delusion in all patients showed that in all three groups there was a similarity of this symptomatology. Besides, the type of personality traits and hereditary loading in all three groups of patients appeared to be similar. It is suggested that nosologically studied group of psychoses in old age developing only with confabulatory-paraphrenic delusion without endogenous or organic dementia first appearing in seniscence should be referred to be senile dementia.