[Age and mental disorders with onset in the presenium and old age]

A study of 294 patients with psychogenic disorders appearing in the elderly, detected certain traits in the psychopathology and development of these disorders, depending upon their manifestation in the presenium or in senescence. Psychogenic diseases with an onset in senescence differed from those appearing in the involutional period by a more sluggish onset, monotonous, fragmentary, obliviated symptoms and a more favourable development. The differences in the symptomatology and development of psychogenic disorders corresponded to peculiar changes in the age basis of the mentioned periods of life.