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Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders in Older Adults

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

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Synonyms

Psychosis

Definition

Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders: Psychiatric disorders involving poor understanding or breakdown of reality due to delusions and/or hallucinations.

Introduction

Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are commonly characterized by positive symptoms (i.e., delusions and hallucinations) and less so by negative symptoms (i.e., flat affect, anhedonia, and poverty of speech). These disorders are believed to be one of the most severe types of mental illness with significant health-care and economic burdens around the world. In particular, schizophrenia has been labeled as the eighth leading cause of disability in the world (Lopez and Murray 1998). In addition, the annual total costs (including health care, unemployment, and disability needs) associated with schizophrenia in the United States has been estimated to be more than $62 billion (Wu et al. 2005).

Psychotic symptom severity does not necessarily worsen with age in late-life schizophrenic...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palo Alto University, 1791 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    Rowena Gomez & Laura Coopersmith

Authors
  1. Rowena Gomez
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  2. Laura Coopersmith
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rowena Gomez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Gomez, R., Coopersmith, L. (2015). Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders in Older Adults. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_271-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_271-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

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