Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T02:59:07.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Syphilis Serology Screening in a Psychogeriatric Population

Is the effort worthwhile?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jean Antoine Boodhoo*
Affiliation:
Newcastle General Hospital, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne; currently Hollymoor Hospital, Tessall Lane, Northfield, Birmingham B31 5EX

Abstract

The treponemal serological status of 800 patients above the age of 65 was reviewed. Twenty-one were found to be positive and the venereologists advised against treatment in all referred cases. The question is posed whether syphilis serology screening in the elderly mentally ill should be confined to those patients with obvious clinical manifestation of syphilis or with obscure psychiatric presentations.

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banks, G. D. (1968) The value of routine serological testing for syphilis in a mental hospital. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 113114.Google Scholar
Bell, R. E. (1959) The value of routine serological tests for syphilis on hospital admission. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 32, 521525.Google Scholar
Davis, B. D., Dulbecco, R., Eisen, H. N., et al (1973) Microbiology (2nd edn). New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Dewhurst, K. (1969) The neurosyphilitic psychoses today: a survey of 91 cases. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 3138.Google Scholar
Giles, A. J. H. (1980) Tabes dorsalis progressing to general paresis after 20 years despite routine penicillin therapy. British Journal of Venereal Diseases, 56, 368371.Google Scholar
Joffe, R., Black, M. & Floyd, M. (1968) Changing clinical picture of neurosyphilis: report of seven unusual cases. British Medical Journal, i, 211212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, L. E. & Smith, C. R. (1982) Defusing a geriatric menace-latent V.D. Geriatrics, 37, 125132.Google Scholar
Lishman, W. A. (1978) Organic Psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Luxon, L., Lees, A. J. & Greenwood, R. J. (1979) Neurosyphilis today. Lancet, i, 9093.Google Scholar
Schofield, C. B. S. (1979) Sexually Transmitted Diseases (3rd edn). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Shannon, R., Copley, C. G. & Morrison, G. D. (1980) Immunological responses in late syphilis. British Journal of Venereal Diseases, 56, 372376.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.