Brain Waves and Clinical Features in Arteriosclerotic and Senile Mental Patients*

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study in which the clinical symptoms of 53 patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis or senile psychosis are related to their electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns. The EEG records were classified in 5 groups as follows: severely abnormal records with slow activity, fast abnormality in the occipital region, moderately abnormal records with slow activity, borderline patterns, and normal records. Clinical diagnoses of the patients were made after a careful analysis of their complete clinical records and in strict independence of the'' results of the EEG examinations. Seven groups of patients were identified, each one characterized by the presence of one of the following 7 major symptoms: confusion, depression, agitation, irritability, hallucinations, delusions, and anxiety. For each of these groups, percentages of tracings belonging to the various EEG categories were detd. It was found that the patients whose major symptom was confusion and marked irritability had a much higher proportion of markedly abnormal EEG records than the patients whose chief symptomatology was anxiety, or the displaying of marked delusional material. In other words, there was an association between the EEG patterns and the clinical symptoms in a group of patients with the clinical diagnosis of the same organic disease. It was found that about 1/3 of the patients studied, although they were all typically organic patients, had a normal or borderline EEG. In the patients with no EEG abnormality, the clinical complex of anxiety-agitation-delusions was outstanding. Involutional psychotics are also characterized by this complex of symptoms.