RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine whether psychiatric morbidity can influence the type of illness behaviour of neurological inpatients. METHODS: For this purpose, we compared neurological inpatients with and without psychiatric disorders (DSM-IIIR criteria) for the seven scales of Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and searched for possible differences between the two patient subgroups. RESULTS: Of the 105 neurological inpatients who participated in the study, 54 (51.4%) were diagnosed as having some type of psychiatric disorder. These patients scored significantly higher than patients without psychiatric morbidity in the scale of Irritability. A suggestive trend for higher scores in the scales of Hypochondriasis, Disease Conviction, and Affective Disturbance, and significantly lower score in the scale of Denial, in patients with psychiatric morbidity, were also found. CONCLUSION: The present study has shown that neurological inpatients with psychiatric morbidity tend to develop more intense illness behaviour than those without. The effect of psychiatric morbidity on certain components of illness behaviour in neurological patients can be taken into account when therapeutic strategies are planned.
Assuntos
Pacientes Internados/psicologia , Transtornos Mentais/complicações , Transtornos Mentais/psicologia , Doenças do Sistema Nervoso/complicações , Doenças do Sistema Nervoso/psicologia , Papel do Doente , Adolescente , Adulto , Idoso , Análise de Variância , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Escalas de Graduação Psiquiátrica , Índice de Gravidade de Doença , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Authors compared delusions, hallucinations, and misidentification delusions in Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) patients. METHODS: The authors report data on the prevalence, severity, clinical, and demographic associations of these symptoms in a population sample of 260 persons with dementia, examined with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. RESULTS: The primary finding was that there was no difference in psychosis as a whole, or in delusions and hallucinations, between AD and VaD. Also, in AD, female gender appeared to be a risk factor for delusions; subjects in an earlier stage of dementia showed fewer delusions. CONCLUSION: The profile of delusions and hallucinations seen is different from that seen in schizophrenia, further supporting the hypothesis that AD-associated psychosis is a distinct phenomenological syndrome.
