Tijdschrift voor Gerontologie en Geriatrie最新文献

Despite growing clinical attention to personality disorders in older adults (≥ 55 yrs.), empirical research addressing personality pathology in late life is scarce. Given the ageing of the population globally, scientific knowledge in this area is of vital importance. This article gives an overview of the epidemiological aspects of personality disorders in older adults, such as prevalence, the course and the impact on various domains of functioning.

The double ageing evolution in Europe is a tremendous challenge for health care. Older adults with a personality disorder place an additional burden: they have more somatic and psychiatric co-morbidity than those without a personality disorder. Moreover, they experience less quality of life than individuals without personality disorders. This is in sharp contrast to the dearth of empirical research concerning the construct of personality disorders in later life, the very limited amount of available diagnostic tools, criteria of classification systems like DSM not being attuned to the elderly context and the lack of age-neutrality of popular instruments to measure personality disorders. Therefore, in the Netherlands and Belgium a start was made to develop and validate age-specific instruments and to examine the applicability of the alternative dimensional-hybrid DSM-5 classification of personality disorders in older adults. These recent developments and how to apply them for a personalized assessment in older adults will be discussed. Finally, we advise a phased test-based diagnostic approach in which the above-mentioned instruments, combined with measures of adaptive features or more specific tests, can contribute to an assessment optimizing the balance between restricting the load for the older patient and still being sufficiently comprehensive to result in a personalized approach of the diagnostic process.

Scientific knowledge of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in older adults is still scarce. Differential diagnosis of ASD and personality disorders is complicated, especially in later life. There is overlap between ASD and personality disorders, both conceptually and descriptively. The manifestation of both disorders is heterogeneous, influenced by age specific factors and characterised by similar behavioural symptoms and the lack of a sound developmental history. In both disorders, age specific changes can exceed adaptive abilities of patients, so ASD and personality disorders may become manifest for the first time in old age. More research is needed to fully understand the relationship between ASD and personality development across the life span. Also, there is a need for assessment instruments for both adults and older people with comorbid mental disorders and personality disorders in particular. As comorbidity of ASD and personality disorders appears to be common, more research should be done into treatment of comorbid personality disorders, also in later life.

Pharmacotherapy in older adults with personality disorders is very complicated. On the one hand, this is caused by interference of the personality disorder in the therapeutic relationship. On the other hand, age specific factors, such as polypharmacy and changing pharmacokinetics and -dynamics play an important complicating role. In this article the difficulties of pharmacotherapy in older adults with personality disorders are illustrated by the description of a case of a 67-year old female with a borderline personality disorder. She has an extensive history of many therapies, which have not been effective in treating a variety of symptoms. This case description emphasizes the importance of making the correct diagnosis and focusing pharmacotherapy on the personality disorder. Also, decreasing polypharmacy, often a consequence of an extensive history of many - both psychiatric and somatic - treatments, plays an important role. There is a lack of evidence on pharmacotherapy in older adults with personality disorders to rely on and therefore there is a need for more research on this subject.

The starting point of this study is that comorbid maladaptive personality traits (CMPT) influence behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). The purpose of this study was to develop and investigate the feasibility of the Cognitive Model for Behavioral Interventions (CoMBI). Forty patients with BPSD and CMPT from two geriatric psychiatric departments were treated with CoMBI. Feasibility was assessed through patient flow, compliance to, and acceptability of the treatment for family members and psychiatric nurses. CMPT was assessed using informant-based questionnaires. Change in BPSD was assessed using pre- and posttests. To determine differences in BPSD, Wilcoxon signed rank tests were conducted and effect sizes were computed. Of 312 patients admitted to the geriatric psychiatric wards, 138 patients were found eligible. 64 (46.4%) patients were discharged from the wards before or shortly after the pretest, in 28 (20.3%) cases CoMBI could not be not applied. Eventually, forty (29.0%) patients were included for analysis. Wilcoxon signed rank tests demonstrated a significant decrease of BPSD with medium (r=0.45) to large (r=0.56) effect sizes. CoMBI is highly feasible for treating challenging behavior in patients with BPSD and CMPT. CoMBI is associated with a significant decrease of challenging behaviors regardless of etiology.

Despite a still reigning therapeutic nihilism, attention for the psychological treatment of personality disorders in older adults has been growing recently. The first empirical studies have been conducted, but their number is still limited, and varies from expert consensus to the first tests of effectiveness of schema therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. Therefore, there is an urgent need for further empirical studies into psychological treatments that have been optimized for older adults on all three treatment levels.

Problem behavior is frequently present in older people living in nursing homes or needing home care services. When Personality disorders or maladaptive traits are involved these older people need specific care. In addition, they and their carers might experience psychological suffering as their behavior is not always properly recognized as the result of their personality. The importance of multidisciplinary teamwork, the role of psychiatric consultation given by an elderly psychiatrist as well as the need for upgrading the knowhow within the care sector itself is discussed using 2 vignettes.