Assessment of the older psychiatric inpatient.

Instruments, whether used in psychometrics or in other fields, must have a practical application if they are to repay the care spent in their use and development. The Geriatric Mental State schedule was developed in response to the need to answer the question whether functional psychiatric disorders were being misdiagnosed as organic brain syndrome and, if so, to what extent this influenced treatment and outcome. In the hospitals studied it was found that American psychiatrists were more likely to diagnose organic brain syndrome than British psychiatrists. Although elderly patients with affective disorder were less likely to be given American patients was as good, if not better, than the outcome in the British patients.