Geriatric in-patients. The precipitating cause of admittance to the state hospital.
The case records of 100 patients over the age of 60 at the time of their admission to a state mental hospital in California were evaluated, using rigid criteria to determine whether the precipitating cause for their state hospitalization was due to a deterioration of their mental state or a change in their socio-environmental milieu. The results of the study indicated that 77 per cent of these patients were in hospital because of a deterioration in their own mental state while 23 per cent were there because of a deterioration in their socio-environmental milieu. The data also were indicative that the proportion of patients put in hospital because of a deterioration in their socio-environmental milieu might conceivably be higher than 23 per cent if subtle changes in family attitude towards the patient could be adequately evaluated.
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D002140:California; D005853:Geriatrics; D006760:Hospitalization; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders; D010361:Patients
GERIATRICS; HOSPITALS, PSYCHIATRIC; MENTAL DISORDERS/in old age