Clinical characteristics of schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's diseases among older adults: A retrospective study of 271 consecutive admissions

Wen Wang ¹ Junrong Ye ¹ Yanheng Wei ¹ Jiawei Huang ¹ Haoyun Wang ² Liu Fei ³ Shengwei Wu ¹ Jialan Wu ¹ Zezhi Li ^1* Jianxiong Guo ^1* Aixiang Xiao ^1*

• ¹ Guangzhou Brain Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
• ² Guangzhou Medical University Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
• ³ KIANG WU NURSING COLLEGE OF MACAU, Macau, Macao, SAR China

Objective: This study aims to identify the clinical characteristics of schizophrenia, depression, and AD among older adults. Methods: General information of patients was collected, including diagnosis, age, gender, level of education, marital status, drinking behavior, smoking behavior, course of mental disorder, type of admission, history of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) and hospitalization period. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7), Insight and Treatment Attitudes Questionnaire (ITAQ), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were employed to evaluate the participants’ mental status. The Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Barthel ADL Index, Standardized Swallowing Assessment (SSA), and Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) were applied to measure social and daily living function. The Nurses’ Global Assessment of Suicide Risk (NGASR) and The Brøset Violence Checklist (BVC) were used to assess the patients’ risk of suicide.Results: Totally 271 participants were recruited, the numbers of participants with schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer’s diseases (AD), were 81 (29.9%), 85 (31.4%), and 105 (38.7%), respectively. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the variance of the crude score results among three groups of subjects. The results showed that patients with depression had the highest GDS total score, followed by patients with AD, and patients with schizophrenia had the lowest score (P < 0.001). The total scores of GAD-7 and ITAQ in patients with depression were higher than those in patients with AD and schizophrenia (P < 0.001). The total score of MMSE in patients with schizophrenia and depression was higher than that in patients with AD (P < 0.001). The incidence of circulatory system diseases in patients with depression and AD was higher than that in patients with schizophrenia (P < 0.05). The incidence of respiratory system diseases in patients with AD was highest, followed by patients with schizophrenia, and patients with depression had the lowest incidence (P < 0.05).