Caracterización psicológica de los ancianos / Psychological characterization of elderly people

RESUMEN

Se realizó una caracterización psicológica de un grupo de ancianos enfermos, se compararon sus diferentes padecimientos con sus edades y rasgos fundamentales, para demostrar que cuanto mayor salud mental tengan mayor será la duración de su vida y menores sus trastornos cognitivos. Se realizó un estudio prospectivo, observacional del universo de enfermos ingresados en nuestras salas y la muestra la constituyeron los ancianos. Se estudiaron las variables edad, sexo, hábitos y enfermedades existentes. Se realizó el Mini Mental Test de Folstein y la Escala Psicoafectiva del Centro Ibero-latinoamericano de la Tercera Edad (CITED), además de un examen físico completo. Se encontró que los ancianos se deprimen con gran frecuencia, lo que está en relación con su entorno familiar; que se enferman más con entidades orgánicas aquellos que tienen peor estado psicoafectivo y que todo esto contribuye al deterioro cognitivo de nuestros ancianos y por lo tanto afecta nuestras expectativas de longevidad feliz

ABSTRACT

Longevity is the aspiration of the developed world, but it should be achieve with a high quality of these patients’ life, in such a way that they may stay in the social environment around them, but without being a burden for society. Everybody must be prepared in all fields, since we should guarantee not only old people’s physical health, but also their mental health as well. There are several disorders in the cognitive and affective field which influence decisively on the preservation of elderly people’s useful life. A psychological characterization of a group of sick old people is carried out. Their different pathologies are compared to their ages and main features to show that the better mental health they have, the longer their life will be, and the lesser cognitive disorders they will have. An observational prospective study of patients taken from those admitted in our wards is carried out, and elderly people were taken as a sample. Age, sex, habits and illness are studied. Folstein mini- mental test and the Psycho-affective Test from the Iberian Latin American Center for Elderly People (CITED) were applied, together with a whole physical exam. It was found that old people are frequently depressed due to family environment; those who have worst psycho affective states get much more organic illness than the others. All this contributes to old people’s cognitive impairment, and therefore it affects our expectation of happy longevity