Hist Psychiatry. 2022 Dec;33(4):467-474. doi: 10.1177/0957154X221117000.

ABSTRACT

In the late nineteenth century, the prognosis of late-life melancholia was believed to be poor. The medical casebooks of 40 patients aged 60+years, admitted to two Hospitals for the Insane in New South Wales with melancholia between 1871 and 1905, were examined. Psychosis (87.5%), depressed mood (80%), suicidal behaviour (55%), physical ill health (55%), restlessness (50%) and fears of harm to self (50%) were identified. Main outcomes were discharge (40%) and death (37.5%). Victoria’s Kew Hospital patient register for 1872-88 revealed 669 melancholia admissions with 30 aged 60+. Outcomes worsened significantly with age (chi square = 16.19, df = 4, p < 0.005), mainly due to higher mortality. Nineteenth-century late-life melancholia was a severe disorder despite many cases recovering.

PMID:36408549 | DOI:10.1177/0957154X221117000