[Psychiatric problems in the elderly--standardization of the Symptom Check List SCL-90-R in patients over 60 years of age].

In the following article, data of the symptom checklist SCL-90-R (Derogatis 1986) for elderly people are introduced, including an estimation of the controlling factors on psychological complaints in old age. The representative sample is based on 394 persons aged 61 to 96; their psychological complaints have been studied with respect to SCL-90-R. Evidently elderly people did not state an increasing load on psychological complaints, but a different structure of psychological symptoms. Therefore with increasing age the scales "Somatization", "Obsessive-compulsive" and "Phobic anxiety" increase, while "Interpersonal sensitivity", "Anger--hostility" and "Paranoid ideation" are decreasing. Within that frame, elderly females report increasing symptomatic load compared to elderly males. Furthermore, aspects of social support and health-related attitudes were found to be important predictors of psychological complaints in old age.