Characteristics of impulse control disorders in elderly patients

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalance of impulse control disorders aming elderly patients and evaluate sociodemographic and clinical features of these cases.Materials and Methods: The study included 76 patients aged 60 and over who have been referred to our outpatient clinics in one year period. A demographic data form has been completed along with a structural clinical interview (SCID-I) to evaluate axis I psychiatric disorders according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). To determine the prevalence of impulse control disorders Minnesota Impulse Control Disorders Interview has been conducted with all patients. Besides all patients completed Symptom Check List-90, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11, to find out several psychopathology and impulsivity levels.Results: In one year period,17% of the sample had at least one impulse control disorder comorbidity. The inclusion of patients with a diagnosis of impulse control disorders not otherwise specified increases the number of patients with any impulse control disorders comorbidity to 22,4%. The most common impulse control disorder was intermittent explosive disorder (15,8%), followed by Pathological Gambling (9.2%). The majority of the sample were men (54%), married (80%), received high school level training (51%), mid-level socioeconomic status (79%), all unemployed (including housewife ) or were retired. In this study, the only significantly different socio-demographic characteristic between patients with a comorbid impulse control disorder and without any impulse control disorder was gender. Whereas only 34.1% of men were diagnosed with at least one lifetime Impulse Control Disorder 8.6% of women were diagnosed as Impulse Control Disorder. The prevalance of conduct disorder childhood were significantly higher in the group with a impulse control disorder. There were no statistically significant difference among the groups interm of attempted suicide, a history of physical illness, and family history of psychiatric illness. Alcohol / substance use disorder rate were found at a prevalance of 17.6% in the group of Impulse Control Disorder, no cases were found in the group without any Impulse Control Disorder.Discussion: The result of this study have shown that one fifth of patients over 60 years in one year period ,had at least one lifetime impulse control disorder. The prevalance rates of impulse control disorders seems to decrease with aging.