Older patients with schizophrenia: nature of dwelling status and symptom severity.

Abstract

This cross-sectional study enrolled elderly patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The 85 subjects were dichotomized into two groups on the basis of dwelling status: those living independently (N=35) and those living in residential settings (N=50). The groups were compared with regard to scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), the Geriatric Depression Scale and by age. Patients living independently had significantly higher MMSE scores, lower SANS scores, more years of education, and were younger than the patients living in residential settings. These data suggest that although cognition, negative symptoms, and age are important discriminators with regard to dwelling status, cognition and negative symptoms appear to have the strongest impact.