Mania in old age: A First Prospective Study

Abstract

Abstract In a first prospective study of manic illness in old age, 35 manic patients over the age of 60 were compared with 35 patients below the age of 40 on clinical and cognitive measures. CT scan comparisons were made between the elderly patients and age‐matched healthy controls. Contrary to previously accepted teaching, the elderly were effectively clinically indistinguishable from the younger patients, except that the latter experienced more severe illnesses. CT and cognitive results, however, in the elderly group showed evidence of changes which support the view that cerebral organic factors play an important role in the genesis of affective disorder in old age.