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The Difficult Elderly Patient: Curable Hostile Depression or Personality Disorder?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2005

Jean-Claude Monfort
Jean-Claude Monfort
Affiliation:
Service de psychiatrie, Hôpital Albert Chenevier, Créteil, France.
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to suggest that hostile behavior in elderly patients is often caused by a reversible mood disorder rather than by a personality disorder or dementia, even if these two last diagnoses are already well established. Sedatives, often prescibed for hostile behavior, can induce confusion, falls, and bedridden states, and can actually increase the rate of mortality. The mood disorder can be a hostile agitated depression or a mixed affective state. The hypothesis of a mood disorder calls for an antidepressant trial, possibly combined with a mood stabilizer.

Type
Introduction
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 7 , Issue S1 , October 1995 , pp. 95 - 111
Copyright
© 1995 Springer Publishing Company

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