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Late-onset schizophrenia: a differential diagnosis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2023
Abstract
Regarding the diagnosis of schizophrenia, a peak of onset of symptoms is considered at 25 years. The debut after 60 years is considered late onset and is rare, generating controversies in the diagnosis
We present the case of a 58-year-old patient with no personal or family history of mental health, who came to the emergency room for the first time, reporting feeling in danger. He comments itching on his skin, verbalizing seeing bugs running through it, relating this phenomenon to “witchcraft by my brothers”, he also refers to feeling like “they watch my thoughts and block it through a mobile application, they enter through my eye right and this gives me less vision and a headache. He also refers to having the ability to listen to how his brothers talk about how they are going to “hurt me.” Psychopathologically, we highlight that she is oriented in the three spheres, presenting delusional ideation with an experience of harm, a phenomenon of thought theft and auditory and tactile hallucinations.
Analytical and imaging tests, as well as toxins in urine, were negative.
Diagnosis of psychotic episode is made to see evolution. The clinic partially yields to treatment with atypical antipsychotics. At this time, the patient has no awareness of the disease.
Despite being a diagnosis that is scarcely prevalent, once organic disease has been ruled out.
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- European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S1071 - S1072
- Creative Commons
- This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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- © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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