Approximately 1 in every 20 in the US population will develop psychosis-involutional in their lifetime. The risk is not related to age, sex, educational attainment, race, and ethnicity.
The presence of dementia and depression are risk factors for psychosis occurring in the elderly. The combination of psychotic symptoms and dementia constitute risk factors for the development of psychosis.\n
In schizophrenic patients, the progressive deterioration of cognition and function with aging that is associated with the onset of psychiatric symptoms is not mediated by neurodegeneration. The progressive deterioration of cognition and function with advancing age in schizophrenia is attributable to a chronic relapsing and remitting disease process.
In this sample, less than 50% of patients receiving antipsychotic medication saw a reduction in symptoms of psychosis after 3 months. In general, antipsychotic drugs can be used for at least 3 months to achieve the desired therapeutic effect. Although there are rare side effects of long-term antipsychotic use, none lasted longer than 1 week.
While psychosis and involution were well-controlled, the results of the study indicated that an effective cure of the primary pathology responsible for schizophrenia-like psychosis and cognitive impairment does not exist.
At this stage of psychological development the individual may be suffering with feelings of sadness, boredom, or emptiness which are qualitatively quite different from those we would normally associate with psychosis such as delusions and hallucinations.
A specific cognitive remediation program that uses a strategy based upon cognitive stimulation is more successful in improving executive functioning and everyday functioning than a "no intervention" control condition.
The prevalence of psychotic symptoms in middle-age and elderly patients without dementia varied, although the most frequent form was psychogenic non-bipolar disorder. Recent findings suggest that primary psychosis (with or without dementia) may be a complication of involution.
This review includes clinical trials on a variety of treatment programs, including SRT, fMRI, EEG, and a multi-level cognitive training program. These programs all have strong face validity, but significant methodological and clinical shortcomings require caution. A multi-level approach to therapy incorporating cognitive training and training on complementary skills is of interest.
CCR-EF is a promising intervention for reducing the effects of neurocognitive decline in older adults. Findings from the CCR-EF intervention suggest that in addition to cognitive remediation of executive functioning alone, it is also associated with reductions in measures of dementia symptom severity. Findings suggest that CCR-EF is a potential treatment to address the cognitive symptoms that are associated with neurocognitive decline and dementia.
There is an urgent need for new effective treatments to improve the outcome of schizophrenia and related mental illness. Pharmacological treatments are not yet sufficiently effective and, in particular, the existing antipsychotic drugs are not effective enough if only they are used alone. Therefore, it is essential to develop new pharmacological agents, which are effective in combination with neuroleptics because they are both less toxic and more effective than antipsychotic drug augmentation.
The potential side effects and unwanted reactions are similar in content (confirmatory/disconfirmatory) with those of non-computerized treatments. The negative affect (e.g., anger, disappointment) is similar in CCR-EF and non-CCC treatments. Interestingly, in the CCR-EF sessions, a decrease in positive affect was found, while in the non-CCC sessions a decrease occurred in positive affect only. Findings from a recent study have implications for interventions designed to facilitate cognitive change that are widely performed in psychotherapy practice.