The prevalence of late-onset schizophrenia in a psychogeriatric population.

Of 288 patients admitted to our psychogeriatric unit during a 4-year study, seven patients were diagnosed as having symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia (2.4% of all admissions). All the patients were women. Their symptoms included bizarre delusions and auditory hallucinations. Negative symptoms were rare. Attempts to reduce the dosage of neuroleptic medication led to reappearance of the symptoms in six patients and readmission of the seventh.