![]() Instead the Public Health Act may be used to deal with these situations if required. In the UK, the Mental Health Act cannot be used in the absence of a mental disorder. Characteristically, the syndrome is unaccompanied by any psychiatric disorder to account for the state in which the patient lives. It may be that chronic alcohol misuse and chronic frontal lobe dysfunction may play a part in this condition. To the extreme level, this can result in the Diogenes syndrome, in which the elderly recluse lives a limited life in advanced squalor with extreme hording of rubbish. Rix, in Encyclopedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 2005 Personality in Old AgeĪs people age, they tend to become more introverted. The recent Mental Capacity Act may prove helpful. 189 Daycare might maintain an individual, but some form of institutional care usually becomes necessary. Compulsory hospitalization is difficult to accomplish, and mortality is high apparently successful rehabilitation is usually followed by relapse. Most people live alone but a number of cases of folie à deux have been reported. 188 The clinical picture is of very gross self-neglect. It may be, however, as some authors have suggested, that frontal lobe degeneration or obsessive compulsive disorder tends to be present if those patients are investigated thoroughly, although this is usually difficult as patients are uncooperative. 187 For others, the syndrome can be understood as an expression of abnormal personality traits, in reaction to stress and loneliness or as the end stage of long-standing reclusiveness. ![]() Several studies have reported that about a third to a half have no psychiatric illness and tend to have higher than average intelligence. Rarely patients have an obsessional disorder. Although the most common diagnosis is dementia, others are depressed, have a paranoid psychosis, or abuse alcohol. There is usually gross self and domestic neglect, often with hoarding and social withdrawal. Patients with this syndrome (also known as senile self-neglect or senile squalor syndrome) often present to units for medicine of the elderly. ![]() Claudia Cooper, in Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (Seventh Edition), 2008 Senile self-neglect (Diogenes syndrome) The Mental Capacity Act may prove helpful to manage patients if they lack capacity and their neglect is significantly impairing their health.Ĭornelius Katona. 142 Daycare might maintain an individual, but some form of institutional care usually becomes necessary. 141 Most people with Diogenes syndrome live alone, but a number of cases of folie à deux have been reported. Some authors have suggested that frontal lobe degeneration or obsessive compulsive disorder tends to be present if those patients are investigated thoroughly, although this is usually difficult to diagnose as patients are uncooperative. 140 For others, the syndrome can be understood as an expression of abnormal personality traits, in reaction to stress and loneliness or as the end stage of long-standing reclusiveness. Several studies have reported that approximately one third to one half have no psychiatric illness and tend to have higher than average intelligence. They usually exhibit gross self-neglect and domestic neglect, often accompanied by hoarding and social withdrawal. Patients with this syndrome (also known as senile self-neglect or senile squalor syndrome) often come initially to departments of geriatric medicine. Fillit MD, in Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, 2017 Senile Self-Neglect (Diogenes Syndrome)
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