• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 1997

With increasing tendency of incidence and interest for the late onset schzophrenia, concerns about whether this disorder is etiologically or phenomenogically distinctive entity or not have increased also. To clarify the disease entity of the late onset schzophrenia and the role of structural brain changes in its etiology, authors tried to prove following hypothesis : Are there any evidences of structural brain changes in the lateonset schizophrenia? ; If present, are they not different from those of the early-onset schizophrenia or progressive schizophrenia? ; And are they not different from those of senile dementia? Subjects were 6 patients with the late-onset schizophrenia, 6 patients with the early-onset schizophrenia, 6 patients with progressive schizophrenia, 6 patients with Alzheimer's dementia, and 6 controls. We measured regions of interest of the magnetic resonance images by computer assisted planimetry using the AutoCad and digitizer. Our study results may suggest that the third ventricular enlargement and a reversal of normal difference between left and right temporal lobe and left-right difference in posterior lateral ventricle are common brain pathology for all types of schizophrenia including the late onset schzophrenia. And also suggest that brain structural changes of the late onset schizophrenia are related with neurodevelopmental abnormality rather than degenerative change.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.295-300
• /
• 1995

Late-onset schizophrenia(LOS) is a controversial entity. It has been thought that onset of schizophrenia is limited to early adulthood, but many European psychiatrists have reported on the occurrence of schizophrenia in late life. DSM-III restricted the diagnosis of schizophrenia to patients with onset of illness before age 45 years. But, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and ICD-10 recognize no upper limit to the age at onset of schizophrenia. Patients with LOS have more visual, tactile, and olfactory hallucinations. Patients with LOS have more persecutory delusions, premorbid schizoid personality traits, and less affective blunting. The course of illness was favorable in LOS. We present four cases of LOS. Their detailed clinical features are reported hear with brief review.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.202-208
• /
• 2018

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in forensic demographic characteristics, interpersonal problems and personality disorder between early and late onset criminal patients with schizophrenia. Methods : The participants included 187 inpatients with schizophrenia who had committed crimes. They filled out the Korean Inventory of Interpersonal Problem Personality Disorder Scales and Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised. They were divided into early onset group and late onset group according to onset age of schizophrenia at 26 years old(under 26 versus 26 and older) and forensic demographic characteristics, interpersonal problem and personality disorders including psychopathy were compared between two groups. Results : There were no differences in gender, education years and family history between the two groups. Early onset group was associated with lower age, earlier onset of age and earlier age at the time of the crime. Duration from onset to diagnosis was not different between the two groups. Duration from onset to crime and after diagnosis to crime was shorter in late onset group. There were no differences between the two groups in the interpersonal problems, personality disorder and psychopathic personality evaluation. Conclusion : These results suggested that there may be forensic demographic differences related to crime between early and later onset schizophrenia. Psychiatrists should consider the age at onset of schizophrenia when assessing the risk of violence in patients with schizophrenia. In the future. it will be needed other study of age classification such as admixture analysis.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.51-55
• /
• 2019

Objectives: Late-onset schizophrenia (LOS, age at first onset ≥40 years) is characterized by including predominance of women, better premorbid social adjustment and lower severity of positive/negative symptoms. However, few studies have been conducted on LOS, especially in Asian countries. This study aimed to examine the clinical features of LOS in comparison with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS). Methods: By retrospectively reviewing medical records, we assessed demographic data and clinical features of 76 LOS (20 males) and 357 EOS (144 males) who admitted to the psychiatric ward of a general hospital. Results: The mean ages of onset were 47.3±5.1 (LOS) and 25.7±6.5 (EOS) years. There were significantly more women in LOS (73.7%) than EOS (59.6%). Significantly more LOS patients had a marital (88.2% vs. 25.8%) and employment history (28.9% vs. 13.1%) than EOS. Patients with LOS had fewer negative (14.3±9.0 vs. 19.9±9.3), general psychopathology score (36.9±11.1 vs. 42.3±13.9) than EOS patients. Conclusion: In line with previous studies, this study demonstrated that LOS patients have better premorbid social adjustment. Our finding also replicates previous findings that LOS patients differ from EOS in predominance of women and relative lack of negative symptoms. These results suggest that LOS may be a distinct subtype of schizophrenia.