Nowadays, a sizeable increase in life interval in many developed countries of the world generates ageing of the world's population. In this regard, there is an increasing interest in the scientific study of peculiarities of ageing, biological and psychological aspects as well as the psychopathological aspect of this problem; this generates certain problems for geriatrics, gerontology, and also for gerontopsychiatry.
The father of gerontology is considered to be an outstanding Russian scientist I.I. Mechnikov and problems of gerontopsychiatry were productively described in the works of A.V. Snezhnevsky (1936), S.G. Zhislin (1963), E.Ya. Sternberg (1983), N.F. Shakhmatov (1984) and others. A sizeable proportion of psychoses among seniors are noted in most countries of the world. In terms of nosology, such psychoses are divided into functional (involutional, presenile) and organic (atrophic, degenerative processes of old age, Alzheimer's disease, Pick's disease).
PRESENILE (INVOLUTIONAL) PSYCHOSES
Involutional psychoses usually develop in women at the age of 50-60. By clinical features, late (involutionary) depressions, late paranoids and late hallucinoses are distinguished.
Late Life Depressions
Late-life depressions (involutional melancholia) in frequency are twice as high as the number of depressions in young and middle age. In senile age, depression is found in 4-5% of all the cases. After the age of 65, as it is evidenced by the data of most studies, pronounced depressions occur in approximately 10% of individuals. Naturally, this percentage is even higher in older people's homes, special boarding houses for elderly and older people.
There is a sizeable increase in suicidal attempts and completed suicides in old age in comparison with similar indices in young people.