FACTS on Mental Health of the Elderly

Statistics

• Between 15-25% of elderly people in the U.S. suffer from significant symptoms of mental illness.
• 236 elderly people per 100,000 suffer from mental illness
• While nearly 25% of elderly persons suffer from symptoms of mental illness, many do not seek care.
• Of the direct costs for treating mental illness, less than 1.5% is spent on behalf of the elderly.
• The highest suicide rate in America is among those aged 65 and older.
• Approximately 6,100 elderly in America kill themselves each year.
• One million elderly people in the U.S. are afflicted by severe organic mental disorders. Two million elderly suffer from moderate organic disorders.

Depression

Depression, the most common mental disorder, afflicts about 5% of the elderly. Symptoms include:

• feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, inappropriate guilt,
• prolonged sadness or unexplained crying spells, jumpiness or irritability,
• loss of interest in and withdrawal from formerly enjoyable activities, family, friends, work or sex.
• intellectual problems such as loss of memory, inability to concentrate, confusion or disorientation
• thoughts of death or suicide
• loss of appetite, or drastic increase in appetite
• persistent fatigue and lethargy, insomnia or drastic increase in sleep
• aches and pains, constipation, or any unexplainable physical problems

Dementia is characterized by confusion, memory loss, and disorientation. In America, only 15% of elderly people suffer from dementias. Dementia can be caused by:

• complications of chronic high blood pressure, blood vessel disease or strokes
• Parkinson’s disease, when severe and advanced
• Huntington’s disease, a genetic disorder, shows symptoms of mental decline,
• changed personality, psychosis, and movement disturbance.
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a viral infection leads to rapid and progressive dementia.

• It is possible that elderly people will become forgetful, disoriented and confused due to a quickly reversible condition that is totally unrelated to dementia.
• Depression can resemble dementia, while medications or malnutrition could trigger the symptoms of dementia.
• Factors that could mimic dementia:

Medications: With the increasing amount of medications being taken by the elderly combined with their slow metabolism, the medications reach toxic levels quickly. The drugs can interact causing confusion, mood changes and other symptoms of dementia.

Malnutrition caused by poor eating habits: Poor eating habits can upset the way the brain functions. Without proper nutrients, pernicious anemia, a blood disorder caused by the inability to use vitamin B, can cause irritability, depression or dementia.

Diseases of the heart or lungs: The brain requires a great deal of oxygen to function properly. When diseased lungs do not draw enough oxygen into the blood, or when a diseased hurt fails to pump enough blood to the brain, the lack of oxygen can affect the brain’s functions.

Diseases of the adrenal, thyroid, pituitary or other glands: These glands regulate emotions, perceptions, memory and thought processes. When they do not function properly, the mental processes are affected.

• Described in 1907, Alzheimer’s disease is the fourth leading cause of death in America.
• An adult’s chances of developing the illness are one in 100.
• The chances of family members of a person suffering from Alzheimer’s increase fourfold.
• One million elderly people are severely afflicted with Alzheimer’s, while two million are moderately affected.
• Alzheimer’s is a slow and gradual disease that begins in the part of the brain which controls the memory. As it spreads to other parts of the brain, it affects a greater number of intellectual, emotional and behavioral abilities.
• Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease begin slowly and progress in stages to include the following:
  - loss of recent, short-term memory
  - mild personality changes, such as increased apathy, or social withdrawal
  - decrease in ability to think abstractly, handle money, work with numbers when paying bills, understand  
    what they read, or organize their day
  - irritability, agitation, loss of neatness in appearance
  - confusion, disorientation, (for example, patients often forget the time and date, where they live or recent 
     events)
• Ultimately, patients become erratic in mood, uncooperative, incontinent, stop conversing, become unable to care for themselves. As of yet, there is still no known cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with Alzheimer’s have inappropriate levels of the enzyme choline acetyltransferase, which is important in memory loss and disorientation. Until a cause is found, there is still no cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
  

If someone you know or love is experiencing these symptoms, do not ignore it.

Seek medical and psychiatric evaluations so that they can receive treatments as soon as possible.

Contact associations that provide organized support groups, educational materials and insurance information for Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families.