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Psychological test performance and sedation thresholds of elderly dements, depressives and depressives with incipient brain change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Gaius Davies ,
Susan Hamilton ,
D. E. Hendrickson ,
Raymond Levy  and
Felix Post
Gaius Davies
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital
Susan Hamilton
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital
D. E. Hendrickson
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital
Raymond Levy
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital
Felix Post*
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Felix Post, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ.
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Synopsis

As expected, dements, depressives and patients with a mixed psychopathology were differentiated from one another on the sedation threshold measure and on a number of psychological tests. In depressives responding to treatment significant changes in physiological and psychological measures, which had been reported in an earlier study, could not be replicated except for an increase of psychomotor speed. In the present sample of patients there were significant correlations between various psychological measures and between them and the levels of the sedation threshold, suggesting that sedation thresholds and psychological tests measured related cerebral functions. Evidence obtained from the earlier investigations to the effect that cerebral age changes short of those occurring in dementia may facilitate the occurrence of depression in late life was only weakly confirmed by the replication study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 103 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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