[Differential diagnosis of late endogenous affective psychoses]

On the basis of examining 102 patients with late endogenous affective psychoses, it has been shown that among them (like among younger patients) there exists a group of cases the nosological differentiation of which based on conventional criteria presents certain difficulties. However, in the older patients these "intermediate" cases are more frequent (about 30% of all cases) than in the younger ones. It has been also shown that at the older age the nosologically more typical paroxysmal and/or phasic endogenous psychoses are void of a number of clinico-nosological properties characteristic of analogous diseases of the younger age.