Functional impairments in elderly patients with schizophrenia and major affective illness in the community: Social skills, living skills, and behavior problems

Despite recent advances in the psychosocial treatment of schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses, little is known about the specific needs of elderly persons with these disorders. To address this gap in understanding, we examined the functional impairments of a sample of elderly patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N = 55), bipolar disorder (N = 39), or major depression (N = 90) who were living in the community and receiving mental health services. Functioning in four different areas was assessed: social skills, behavior problems, self-care skills, and community living skills. Diagnostic group comparisons indicated that the schizophrenia-schizoaffective disorder group had worse functioning than the other groups across all of the different domains. The clinical and research implications of the findings for the development of psychosocial interventions for elderly persons with schizophrenia are discussed.