Old Age Mental Disorders in Newcastle upon Tyne

Community surveys abroad have shown that there is a high prevalence of serious mental illness in old age, much of which is not treated in hospital (Gruenberg, 1961; Nielsen, 1963). Most community surveys of the aged in this country have, however, been concerned chiefly with general medical and social problems (Sheldon, 1948; Simonds and Stewart, 1954), or have formed part of whole-population studies and recorded only the most severe kinds of mental disturbance in old age (Mayer-Gross, 1948). An exception is the study of a Scottish rural practice by Primrose (1962).