BJP Evidence-Based Mental Health
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Radebaugh, T. S.
Right arrow Articles by Gruenberg, E. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Radebaugh, T. S.
Right arrow Articles by Gruenberg, E. M.

The British Journal of Psychiatry 151: 341-346 (1987)
© 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

The Social Breakdown syndrome in the elderly population living in the community: the Helping Study

TS Radebaugh, FJ Hooper and EM Gruenberg
Geriatrics Branch, National Institute on Ageing, Bethesda, Maryland 20205.

A representative sample of elderly people residing in the community was examined to establish their psychiatric status. An interview with a close friend or relative, focusing on a one-week period in 1981, was used to investigate each subject's functional limitations and troublesome behaviour, these being the two components of the Social Breakdown Syndrome. The data from the sample were weighted to allow estimates of the characteristics of the general population. No cases of SBS at its most extreme were identified, and almost the entire population was found to be functioning at an adequate or near-adequate level: all cases of severe SBS were attributable to troublesome behaviour. Severe SBS was shown to increase with age and to be most common in non-white males. Persons with dementing disorders were more likely than their non-demented counterparts to show severe/moderate SBS, but in the majority of cases of SBS there was no mental disorder.




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.