[Clinical and psychopathological characteristics of patients with late-onset schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychoses in clusters identified by biological parameters].

Objective: To assess clinical and psychopathological characteristics of late-aged female patients with late-onset psychoses in clusters formed on the basis of biochemical and immunological blood parameters.

Material And Methods: We examined 59 women with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychoses with onset after 40 years (ICD-10 F20, F22.8, F25, F23, F06.

Late onset psychosis treatment with adjunctive medicines.

Background: A number of studies have shown the feasibility of using adjunctive drugs in late onset psychosis (LOP).

Aim: Testing hypothesis that among LOP people treated with antipsychotics and antidepressants, basing on certain clinical characteristics a subgroup of patients might be distinguished, for whom adjunctive therapy is advantageous. This subgroup might be identified by measurement of blood biochemical parameters.

[Cognitive functions in late-onset psychosis].

The review discusses cognitive functions in late-onset schizophrenia and very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis compared to cognition in normal aging, early-onset schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative diseases. The problem of the dynamics of the state of the cognitive functions in patients with late-onset schizophrenic psychoses is highlighted, and prospects for further research are discussed. Patients with late-onset schizophrenic psychosis are characterized by more pronounced cognitive deficits compared to normal aging, but less severe than cognitive changes observed in early-onset schizophrenia.

[Specific features of immunological reactions in elderly and young patients with exacerbation of schizophrenia].

Objective: To identify levels of inflammation markers (the enzymatic activity of leukocyte elastase (LE), the functional activity of the α1-proteinase inhibitor (α1-PI), autoantibodies to neurotrophin S100b and myelin basic protein (MBP)) in blood plasma of old- and young-aged patients with schizophrenia in comparison with features of the clinical course of schizophrenia.

Material And Methods: Two age groups of patients with schizophrenia were examined. The 1 group consisted of 19 female patients, aged 60 to 78 years (mean age 67.

[Augmentation with carnicetine for late depression].

Aim: Comparative evaluation of the efficacy and safety of antidepressant monotherapy and complex antidepressant therapy in combination with carnicetine in the treatment of depression in elderly patients in a psychiatric hospital.

Material And Methods: Two groups of hospitalized patients, aged from 60 to 79 years, with mild or moderate depression (according to ICD-10), comparable in basic demographic and clinical characteristics, received mono- or complex (in combination with carnicetine) antidepressant therapy for 8 weeks. Treatment efficacy was assessed with HAM-D, HARS, CGI-S and CGI-I; the level of cognitive activity was assessed with MMSE, the 10-word memory test and clock drawing test.