[Comparative study of 2 groups of paranoid syndromes appearing at different ages]

Clinical study of two groups of females beyond age of 65, institutionalized for delusional manifestations of schizophrenic nature and presenting also, at the time of examination, a pronounced paranoid state. In the first group: the manifestations had arisen before the age of 45. In the second group, after the age of 65. This study has demonstrated certain psychopathological characteristics suggesting the presence of personality problems definitely more profound in patients of the first group: autistic state, asthenia, thought disorder, incoherence and vagueness of delusional subjects, ordinarily much more unreal are characteristics of the first group in comparison to the second. This seems to bring evidence that these two paranoid states (paranoid schizophrenia in adult age and paranoid state in senility) are, at first sight, pathological entities based on personality problems of very different intensity.