Definitions
Schizophrenia: a severe mental illness associated with significant disease burden and disability. With a typical onset in adolescence or early adulthood, the illness is characterized by three categories of symptoms: positive symptoms, which include delusions and hallucinations; negative symptoms, which include reductions in affect, speech, and goal-directed behaviors; and disorganized symptoms, including thought disorder. These symptoms must be accompanied by a decline in previous functioning and must not be attributable to a medical condition or substance use (American Psychiatric Association 2013).
Overview
Individuals with schizophrenia are aging into older adulthood in unprecedented numbers. Research has documented high medical illness burden, continued psychiatric and social impairment, and elevated risk for cognitive decline and early institutionalization in this population. However,...
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Muralidharan, A., Harvey, P.D. (2021). Schizophrenia in Older Adults. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_964
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_964
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