Objective: The elderly population in Turkey and in the world is progressively increasing and the increase is expected to be more prominent in the future. As the elderly population grows, there will be an increasing demand on health services, resulting in rapidly rising medical, psychiatric, and social healthcare problems. The aim of the present study is to determine the distribution of psychiatric illness, including gender-based differences, demographic characteristics and prevalence within all elderly age groups, among patients visiting the general psychiatry outpatient clinic.
Method: This was a retrospective study using data from the patient registry system for elderly patients who visited the general psychiatry outpatient clinic between September 2013 and February 2014. Patients were ?65 years of age. PatientsÂ’ demographic characteristics and their Axis I diagnoses according to DSM-IV-TR were recorded.
Results: Of the 1044 patients who visited the general psychiatry outpatient clinic during the 6-month period, 15% (n=158) were aged ?65 years; 62% of the 158 patients included in the study were female and 38% were male. Depression was present in 41% of patients; 21% had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); 8% had adjustment disorder (AD), and 7% had schizophrenia. GAD was statistically significantly higher in females and AD was statistically significantly higher in males.
Conclusion: Assessing demographic data including common diagnoses and diagnostic differences between genders in elderly patients is important to improve new diagnosis and treatment strategies.
Key words: Adjustment disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, geriatric psychiatry
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