Psychiatric Problems of the Cerebro-Vascular Disease in the Elderly Patients

• Published in: Nihon Rōnen Igakkai zasshi Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 298 - 305
• Main Author: Amemiya, Katsuhiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Geriatrics Society 1975
• ISSN: 0300-9173
• DOI: 10.3143/geriatrics.12.298

Psychiatric examinations were performed on the 100 patients who had survived from the acute stage of cerebro-vascular stroke. They were all right-handed, clear in consciousness and sixty years and over. Seventy-six percents of the subjects showed more or less mental symptoms. The patients were divided into the following 5 types according to their symptoms, Type I (Simple recovery)……24 cases. Type II (Simple dementia)……17 cases. Type III (Psychotic with dementia)……21 cases. Type IV (Psychotic without dementia)……31 cases. Type V (Neuropsychologic)……16 cases. (Type V was overlapped with Type II in 6 cases, with Type III in 2 cases and with Type IV in 1 case.) The incidence of dementia was higher in the right-sided hemiplegics than the left, while that of the psychotic state was higher in the left-sided hemiplegics. It was considered that causal genesis of dementia of these patients was due to cerebro-vascular stroke itself rather than to progressive arteriosclerotic narrowing of the cerebral arteries. From psychiatric aspects, apoplexy in the elderly subjects is an especially important problem. More concerns should be paid on psychiatric states after stroke.