Differential diagnosis of the disturbed elderly patient.

Disturbed elderly patients too often receive a general and rather automatic diagnosis of senility when a differential diagnosis, made by a multidisciplinary team, could identify their problems more specifically. The Gerontological Treatment Center of the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C., has been making such differential diagnoses for the past four years and has returned nearly 80 per cent of its 300 patients to community living after six to eight weeks at the center. The most common problem found in the patients is depression. Case examples demonstrate the need for an understanding of both physical and mental problems that elderly patients face.