[Diogenes syndrome in the elderly: clinical form of frontal dysfunction? Report of 4 cases].

Purpose: Diogenes syndrome is characterised by self-neglect and domestic squalor which leads to unhealthy living conditions. It seems that no single model satisfactorily explains the development of Diogenes syndrome.

Methods: We report four cases of Diogenes syndrome discovered during a short-stay geriatric hospitalization. We were able to analyse them as regards social, physical, psychiatric and cognitive aspects.

Results: The results showed absence of socioeconomic precariousness, psychiatric and physical pathologies which generate handicaps. A dementia characterised by a frontal dysfunction was constantly found.

Conclusion: Diogenes syndrome seems to be a particular behavioural demonstration of a frontal lobe dementia. It does not correspond to a lucid life choice, which must encourage a medico-social assumption.