Late-life onset of psychotic symptoms.

The authors retrospectively evaluated the etiology and clinical findings of patients with first manifestations of psychotic symptoms after the age of 65. Nearly 10% of over 1,700 consecutive geriatric patients admitted to an acute inpatient psychogeriatric unit had late-life onset psychotic symptoms. About three-fourths of these were women, usually in their seventies. Dementia of the Alzheimer's type was the most common cause of psychosis arising in late life, followed by major depression, medical/toxic causes, delirium, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. Clinical manifestations consisted mostly of delusions and hallucinations.