Late paraphrenia: A variant of schizophrenia manifest in late life oran organic clinical syndrome? A review of recent evidence
M. Roth
Bok Engelsk 1998
| Utgitt | 1998
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|---|---|
| Omfang | Side 775- 784
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| Opplysninger | A large amount of research has been devoted during the past 15 yearsto the clinical and neurobiological aspects of the disorder named as'late paraphrenia' (LP) in 1955. The symptomatology and diagnosis ofthe disorder, its prognosis, the cognitive functioning of thoseaffected, the structural changes in the brain as revealed by moderntechniques of brain imaging and its postmortem neuropathology haveall been submitted to investigation. The results have been widelyregarded as consistent with the concept of LP as an organic diseaseof the brain, but increased knowledge of the neurobiology ofschizophrenia and of the age-related changes that occur in the brainsof elderly people casts doubt on the validity of this interpretation.The findings are consistent with the view that LP is the form inwhich schizophrenia is manifest in old age. The proposal that LP hasa closer kinship with affective disorder than with schizophrenia ispart of a general theory of the sex differences in schizophrenia. InLP it becomes entangled with the organicity hypothesis, suggestingthat neither of these explanations is adequate, and most of theevidence points to a unitary concept which views LP as a variant of asingle disorder, namely schizophrenia, which, however, requires abroad definition. This concept has implications for fresh paths ofenquiry. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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| Emner |
