[Revive the life pulsion: the geriatric psychiatry day care hospital].

Old age with its succession of losses is a vulnerable phase in life for developing or exacerbating mental illnesses. Pragmatically, we can identify three types of senior patients: patients presenting behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, patients affected by a chronic mental illness, patients experiencing a first major psychiatric syndrome in later life. The purpose of this article is to describe the specific programs developed by the day care hospital of the Geriatric Psychiatry Service, Geneva University Hospitals, to respond to the need of these groups of patients as well as their relatives.

Personality, psychosocial and health-related predictors of quality of life in old age.

Objectives: Beyond its well-documented association with depressive symptoms across the lifespan, at an individual level, quality of life may be determined by multiple factors: psychosocial characteristics, current physical health and long-term personality traits.

Method: Quality of life was assessed in two distinct community-based age groups (89 young adults aged 36.2 ± 6.

Stressful life events and neuroticism as predictors of late-life versus early-life depression.

Background: The occurrence of depression in younger adults is related to the combination of long-standing factors such as personality traits (neuroticism) and more acute factors such as the subjective impact of stressful life events. Whether an increase in physical illnesses changes these associations in old age depression remains a matter of debate.

Methods: We compared 79 outpatients with major depression and 102 never-depressed controls; subjects included both young (mean age: 35 years) and older (mean age: 70 years) adults.

Personality traits, cognition and volumetric MRI changes in elderly patients with early-onset depression: a 2-year follow-up study.

Previous studies revealed personality changes in elderly patients with early-onset depression (EOD) that persist in euthymic stages. However, depression in older patients is a complex disorder that may affect not only personality, but also cognition and brain structure. To address this issue, a cross-sectional comparison and 2-year follow-up of 28 EOD elderly patients and 48 healthy controls included detailed neurocognitive assessment, estimates of brain volumes in limbic areas and white matter hyperintensities, as well as evaluation of the Five Factor Model of personality, in a remitted mood state.

Personality traits are associated with acute major depression across the age spectrum.

Objectives: Psychological predictors, such as personality traits, have aroused growing interest as possible predictors of late-life depression outcome in old age. It remains, however, unclear whether the cross-sectional relationship between personality traits and depression occurrence reported in younger samples is also present in the elderly.

Methods: Comparisons amongst 79 outpatients with DSM-IV major depression and 102 healthy controls included assessment of the five-factor model of personality (NEO PI-R), socio-demographic variables, physical health status, as well as depression features.

Combined analysis of grey matter voxel-based morphometry and white matter tract-based spatial statistics in late-life bipolar disorder.

Background: Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in young patients with bipolar disorder indicated the presence of grey matter concentration changes as well as microstructural alterations in white matter in various neocortical areas and the corpus callosum. Whether these structural changes are also present in elderly patients with bipolar disorder with long-lasting clinical evolution remains unclear.

Methods: We performed a prospective MRI study of consecutive elderly, euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and healthy, elderly controls.

Neurocognitive deficits and personality traits among euthymic patients with mood disorders in late life.

Background: Previous studies revealed that acute depressive episodes are associated with both cognitive deficits and modified personality patterns in late life. Whether or not these psychological changes are present after remission remains a matter of debate. To date, no study provided concomitant assessment of cognition and psychological functions in this particular clinical setting.

Neuroanatomical and neuropsychological features of elderly euthymic depressed patients with early- and late-onset.

Background: Whether or not cognitive impairment and brain structure changes are trait characteristics of late-life depression is still disputed. Previous studies led to conflicting data possibly because of the difference in the age of depression onset. In fact, several lines of evidence suggest that late-onset depression (LOD) is more frequently associated with neuropsychological deficits and brain pathology than early-onset depression (EOD).

Neuroanatomical and neuropsychological features of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.

Objective: Previous studies reported that the severity of cognitive deficits in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD) increases with the duration of illness and postulated that progressive neuronal loss or shrinkage and white matter changes may be at the origin of this phenomenon. To explore this issue, the authors performed a case-control study including detailed neuropsychological and magnetic resonance imaging analyses in 17 euthymic elderly patients with BD and 17 healthy individuals.

Methods: Neuropsychological evaluation concerned working memory, episodic memory, processing speed, and executive functions.

Volumetric MRI changes, cognition and personality traits in old age depression.

Background: The presence of cognitive and structural deficits in euthymic elderly depressed patients remains a matter of debate. Integrative aetiological models assessing concomitantly these parameters as well as markers of psychological vulnerability such as persistent personality traits, are still lacking for this age group.

Methods: Cross-sectional comparisons of 38 elderly remitted patients with early-onset depression (EOD) and 62 healthy controls included detailed neuropsychological assessment, estimates of brain volumes in limbic areas and white matter hyperintensities, as well as evaluation of the Five-Factor personality dimensions.

Cognitive features in euthymic bipolar patients in old age.

Objectives: Studies of cognition in bipolar disorder (BD) have reported impairments in processing speed, working memory, episodic memory, and executive function, but they have primarily focused on young and middle-aged adults. In such studies, the severity of cognitive deficits increases with the duration of illness. Therefore, one would expect more pronounced deficits in patients with longstanding BD.

Personality traits influence clinical outcome in day hospital-treated elderly depressed patients.

Objectives: Although personality traits are considered significant predictors of both physical and mental health, their specific impact on treatment outcome in elderly patients with depression remains largely unexplored. Impact of personality traits on the evolution of depressive symptoms, quality of life, and perception of clinical progress was assessed in a psychotherapeutic community.

Design: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted in 62 elderly outpatients.

Assessing depression outcome in patients with moderate dementia: sensitivity of the HoNOS65+ scale.

To date, there is no widely accepted clinical scale to monitor the evolution of depressive symptoms in demented patients. We assessed the sensitivity to treatment of a validated French version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS) 65+ compared to five routinely used scales. Thirty elderly inpatients with ICD-10 diagnosis of dementia and depression were evaluated at admission and discharge using paired t-test.

Longitudinal assessment of psychotherapeutic day hospital treatment for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.

Objective: Behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) of dementia are associated with more rapid cognitive deterioration as well as increased caregiver stress. The effectiveness of psychiatric day hospital care for this condition remains disputed. We report here the assessment of a psychotherapeutic day hospital program in a series of elderly people with dementia and concomitant BPSD.

Longitudinal assessment of psychotherapeutic day hospital treatment for elderly patients with depression.

Objective: Although previous studies suggested that psychiatric day hospital care is a valuable alternative to inpatient treatment, its effectiveness for elderly patients is disputed. Small number of cases, poor definition of the psychotherapeutic setting, and absence of systematic assessment at different time points may explain the observed discrepancies. We performed an assessment of a psychiatric day hospital treatment combining individual and group psychotherapy in a series of 122 elderly depressed outpatients.

Structured assessment of mental health status in psychogeriatrics: validity of the French HoNOS65+.

Objective: To assess the reliability, validity, and feasibility of a French version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Elderly People (HoNOS65+).

Method: Twenty mental health professionals completed the scale for 126 elderly patients. We assessed interrater reliability in inpatient and outpatient settings, together with construct and discriminant validity, as well as concurrent validity compared with several widely used clinical instruments.