Old Age Mental Disorders in Newcastle upon Tyne

In a previous paper (Kay, Beamish and Roth, 1963) we studied the prevalence of various kinds of psychiatric disorder in a random sample of old people living at home in Newcastle upon Tyne. During the interviews, special attention was paid to the collection of social data. For, as Townsend (1957a) pointed out, old age is an epoch of diminishing social contacts and domestic support, and isolated old people make disproportionately heavy demands on the institutions of the Health and Welfare Services. By comparing the medical status and social circumstances of subjects with organic brain syndromes, those with functional disorders, and those without psychiatric abnormality, we have attempted to explore further the relative importance of these factors in the two main groups of mental disorders in old age.