Older Schizophrenia Patients Found More Likely to Be Diagnosed With Dementia

Older U.S. adults with schizophrenia may be more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those who do not have a serious mental illness (SMI), according to areport inJAMA Psychiatry. The study also found that this population is more likely to receive a dementia diagnosis at an earlier age.“Approximately 28% of the group with schizophrenia had received a diagnosis of dementia before 66 years of age, indicating early-onset dementia,” wrote T. Scott Stroup, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and colleagues. “The implications of this hig h rate of comorbidity are substantial for families and for the service system, which must provide high levels of care for individuals with a combination of disabling conditions and uncertain treatment pathways.”Stroup and colleagues examined Medicare data from 2007 to 2017 to estimate dementia diagnoses among people aged 66 years or older. They compared those who had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia with those without a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or recurrent major depressive disorder (that is, without SMI). Dementia was defined by the diagnostic codes used by Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services Chronic Conditions Warehouse algorithm for Alzheimer ’s disease and related disorders or senile dementia.The study population of more than 8 million adults 66 years or older included more than 74,000 individuals with schizophrenia and more than 7.9 million without SMI...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer's disease cognitive deficits dementia functional deficits JAMA Psychiatry schizophrenia serious mental illness SMI Source Type: research