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Hindi Research Article
Late-Life Mental Health Disorders. Data from a Population-Based Study
Atti AR1*, Morri M1, Gibiino S1, Forlani M1, Scudellari P1, Dal Monte E2, Ferrari B1 and De Ronchi1
1Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2Unit of Geriatric Medicine, Local Health Authority of Ravenna, Italy
- Corresponding Author:
- Anna Rita Atti
Department of Biomotor and Neuroscience: Section of Psychiatry “P. Ottonello”
University of Bologna
Viale Carlo Pepoli 5 – 40123, Bologna, Italy
Tel: +39051524100
Fax: +39051521030
E-mail: annarita.atti@unibo.it
Received date: September 28, 2015; Accepted date: December 29, 2015; Published date: December 30, 2015
Citation: Atti AR, Morri M, Gibiino S, Forlani M, Scudellari P, et al. (2015) Late-Life Mental Health Disorders. Data from a Population-Based Study. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 5:202. doi: 10.4172/2161-460.1000202
Copyright: © 2015 Atti AR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Although highly prevalent, so far mental disorder in late life has deserved little research interest, especially at the population level. Our study provides a reliable picture of the distribution of mental health disorders in a sample of 462 Italian older people aged 75+, women are 53.2%, from a population-based study, the Faenza Project. In our sample, one mental disorder is diagnosable in one out of 3 elderly. The most prevalent diagnosis was General Anxiety Disorder (20.7%) and Dementia (19.0%), with female significantly more affected than male. Also Cognitive Impairment No Dementia was highly prevalent with 13.9% of the sample showing these symptoms. The most frequent overlap was between GAD and Major Depressive Episode. The risk of suicide is very high among older, in our sample 7.3% had suicidal thoughts. In spite of that approximately 70% of older adults with mood and anxiety disorders did not use services. There is a need to improve awareness about mental disorders in late- life, both in the community and among health care professionals to find innovative strategies to promote a successful aging with the integration of geriatric psychiatry and primary care.
