A chart review study of late-onset and early-onset schizophrenia.

This chart review study compared 54 schizophrenic patients with onset of illness after age 45 years to 54 young and 22 elderly patients with early-onset schizophrenia (before age 45). The index group was more likely to have visual, tactile, and olfactory hallucinations; a greater number of different types of hallucinations; persecutory delusions; and premorbid schizoid personality traits, and was less likely to have thought disorder and affective flattening, than was either comparison group. Among the two elderly groups, index patients had more auditory and visual sensory impairment. Nearly half (48.1%) of the index patients responded to neuroleptic treatment with complete remission.