Late paraphrenia — a follow‐up study

Abstract
We report a 3.7 year follow‐up study carried out on 42 patients with an original diagnosis of late paraphrenia who had had a CT scan and simple tests of cognition in addition to an assessment by means of the Geriatric Mental State Schedule. Mortality was found to be no different than in a control group. Patients showed improvement in target symptoms but exhibited a good deal of residual morbidity, particularly of motor and cognitive function. Cognitive performance, which was previously mildly impaired, showed some futher deterioration, usually falling short of clear‐cut dementia. Ventricular size on the CT scan was not a predictor of outcome. The article highlights the organic substrate of late paraphrenia but suggests that the cerebral changes are relatively subtle and slowly progressive.