- Dementias – Neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Lewy body dementia, Vascular neurocognitive disorder, and other neurocognitive disorders. (See Neurocognitive Disorders in the Disorders-Interventions tab).
- Geriatric depression – Depression in old age is often assumed to be normal; however, depression at any age is not normal and needs to be diagnosed and treated. Factors can include:
- Physical and cognitive decline
- Loss of function/self-sufficiency
- Loss of marriage partner, friends (narrowing support group), isolation
- The elderly may have many somatic complaints (head hurts, stomach upsets) that mask the depression (Chenitz 1991) (See Geriatric Depression Scale in Assessment tab)
- Pseudodementia – Cognitive difficulty that is actually caused by depression but may be mistaken for dementia.
- Need to consider and rule out dementia (Mini-Mental State Examination; see Mini-Cog™ Screening Instrument in the Assessment Tab) and actually differentiate from depression (Geriatric Depression Scale)
- Can be depressed with cognitive deficits as well
- Late-onset schizophrenia – Presents later in life, after age 40–60 y.
- Psychotic episodes (delusions or hallucinations) may be overlooked (schizophrenia is considered to be a young-adult disease)
- Organic brain disease should be considered as part of the differential diagnosis
Characteristics of Late-Onset Schizophrenia 
- Delusions of persecution common, hallucinations prominent; “partition” delusion (people/objects pass through barriers and enter home) common; rare in early onset.
- Sensory deficits – often auditory/visual impairments
- May have been previously paranoid, reclusive, yet functioned otherwise
- Lives alone/isolated/unmarried
- Negative symptoms/thought disorder rare
- More common in women (early onset: equally common) (Lubman & Castle 2002)
Psychotropic Drugs – Geriatric Considerations
(See Drugs A-Z tab for geriatric considerations; and the Elderly and Medications in the Drugs/Labs Tab.)