Abstract
This chapter examines the course of schizophrenia in late life. In so doing, we examine the changes in symptom expression seen in older patients, compared with what we know about the course of schizophrenia in younger populations. We examine the validity of previous ideas regarding changes in the overall presentation of the illness over time, including the theory that aging in schizophrenia shifts toward greater expression of negative symptoms and reduced expression of positive symptoms. We also evaluate the data regarding whether some patients recover fully from the illness in later life, as well as examine some of the characteristics of patients with a chronic course of illness. We examine whether the history of illness before late life predicts the likelihood of change in symptom presentation with aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)