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Biomedical subjects

F Schifano

Publications and source records attributed to F Schifano.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Use of psychotropic drugs in general medical geriatric inpatients. Relationship with various parameters of psychological distress (evaluated 'in blind').

The authors have evaluated the psychotropic drug use patterns and psychological distress (with the Symptom Distress Checklist, SCL-90) amongst 331 elderly medical inpatients. Forty-two percent of the sample took psychotropic drugs during their hospitalization period. The drugs most commonly used were anxiolytics and hypnotics of the benzodiazepine class. Subjects to whom psychotropic drugs were prescribed reported higher psychological distress compared to those not receiving them; however, a score of moderate distress in the depression and sleep disturbances subscales was reported by a relatively high percentage of subjects not receiving psychotropics. Patients taking antidepressants reported scores of psychological suffering higher than those under benzodiazepine treatment: such a difference not only related to the depression subscale, but to the majority of the symptom areas investigated by the SCL-90.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1985

Depression in geriatric and adult medical inpatients.

The authors administered two scales for the evaluation of depression, the Zung SDS and the DFS (Depression Factor Score), derived from the SCL-90, to two groups of medical inpatients: One composed of adult subjects (N = 201) and the other of geriatric subjects (N = 178). The results confirm a high presence of depressive symptoms among patients with medical problems, particularly among geriatric subjects; the prevalence of depression was 20.39% for the adults and 42.13% for the elderly patients. High indices of correlation between the two scales were found for both populations. A multiple regression analysis indicated that the factors most predictive of depressive symptoms are female sex and the presence of somatic symptoms likely to lead to disability for elderly subjects and low social class and female sex for adults.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1985

Pain as a symptom in elderly depressed patients. Relationship to diagnostic subgroups.

The presence of pain as a symptom has been studied in a series of 51 depressed elderly inpatients and in a control group of 71 subjects. The frequency of patients with moderate to severe pain was significantly higher in the experimental group (72%) than in the controls (33.8%). Of the various categories diagnosed according to the DSM III degree criteria, the highest scores for pain were gained by the subjects suffering from dysthymic disorder and atypical depression, while those obtained by the patients with major depression and adjustment disorder with depressive mood were lower. The difference does not seem to depend on the quantity of anxiety present.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

Evaluation of use patterns of psychotropic drugs in an Italian geriatric hospital.

This study is a survey of psychotropic drug use patterns among 934 elderly patients admitted to the Padua Geriatric Hospital. 34% of the patients took psychotropic drugs during their stay in hospital. The drugs most commonly used are anxiolytics and hypnotics of the benzodiazepine class. Women subjects living alone, and to a lesser extent those suffering from particular disorders, as of the central nervous system and the musculoskeletal apparatus, seem to be at higher risk in the use of psychotropic drugs. Moreover, the results show that psychotropic drugs are prescribed during the stay in hospital and even on discharge to a high percentage of subjects who did not use such drugs before admission to the hospital.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of depression in an elderly medical population.

Two self-rating depression scales, the Depression Factor Score derived from the SCL-90 and the Geriatric Depression Scale were administered to 220 medical geriatric in-patients, and two psychiatrists, after a clinical interview, made a diagnosis according to the DSM-III criteria for affective disorders. Eighteen patients were found to be affected by major depression, 49 by dysthymic disorder, 14 by atypical depression and 13 by an adjustment disorder with depressive mood. Women and single persons proved to be significantly more affected by depressive disturbances. The performance of both scales was good, so that they seem to be useful instruments aiding the non-specialist physician in a rapid screening procedure for the identification of depression in elderly patients with medical problems.

Adjustment Disorders↗