Questions of primary diagnosis of schizophrenia in middle-aged and older patients

Abstract

An analysis of clinical and social characteristics of patients aged 40 years and older with primary diagnosis of schizophrenia (F 20-21) in a psychiatric hospital. We studied 114 medical records of patients aged 40 and over who were admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a two-year period (2018-2019) with a first-time diagnosis of schizophrenia (F 20-21) based on the results of inpatient examination and treatment. The analysis shows that 90% of patients were aged 40-59 years, 59.6% of them were women. In every third patient (33.3%), clinical signs of psychosis were observed for five or more years before hospitalization and diagnosis, and in 14.9% for more than 10 years, the average duration of psychosis before diagnosis was 5.1 years. Markers of psychosis were non-specific factors of family adaptation, working capacity, and substance use, which revealed relationships with gender characteristics and age of diagnosis of psychosis. Better adaptation parameters correlated with the female sex and later diagnosis of schizophrenia, lower indicators were more typical for the male sex and earlier diagnosis. Signs of increasing social maladjustment should be alarming to the patient's relatives, as well as social and medical services. In addition, the timely diagnosis of psychosis requires psychoeducation of the population, training of social workers and primary health care professionals.