Psychotic disorders in women in later life

Abstract

Introduction The clinical picture of a cognitively intact elderly woman - living alone, hearing impaired and always having been a little suspicious - developing new and florid delusions and hallucinations of someone in her home is familiar to most clinicians practicing in psychiatry of old age. The health, social and economic implications of the aging population are increasingly recognized across the globe (e.g., Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2013; Institute of Ageing, Oxford, UK). Yet, the phenomenon of psychosis occurring for the first time in older people in the absence of mood disorder, dementia or other apparent neurological cause remains understudied and enigmatic. Resear..