Some demographic and diagnostic characteristics of a geriatric population in a state geriatric facility

Data are presented on some of the chief characteristics of a sample of 276 patients (152 women and 124 men) in a long-term state psychiatry facility, who had previously undergone intensive psychiatric treatment. For the women the average age ws 81.6 years, and for the men 75.8 years. The women had slightly more schizophrenia, manic depressive illnesses and cerebrovascular syndromes. The men had distinctly more CNS syphilis and alcoholic dementia. Initially, patients with schizophrenia had been admitted at ages ranging from 15 to 99 years, and those with manic depressive illness at ages ranging from 20 to 70 years. For cerebrovascular syndromes, admissions were concentrated in the age range of 70-90 for women and 65-85 for men. For CNS syphilis, the admissions (for men) were concentrated in the age range of 50-70, and for alcoholic dementia in the age range of 60-80. Length of stay was extremely long for schizophrenic and manic depressive illness and relatively short for cerebrovascular syndromes. However, for the majority of the cerebrovascular patients, the length of stay was at least five years for the men and at least ten years for the women.