Robert J Teunisse

BACKGROUND: Charles Bonnet's Syndrome (CBS), characterised by the presence of complex visual hallucinations in psychologically normal people, was considered for a long time to be rare. Systematic research on CBS has been limited. However, it has been realised that CBS occurs frequently in elderly, visually handicapped patients, and we have been able to study the syndrome in a large number of patients.

METHODS: After screening 505 visually handicapped patients, 60 were found to meet ...

BACKGROUND: The aims were to determine the prevalence of the Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) in low-vision patients and analyse possible associated ophthalmic and sociodemographic factors.

METHOD: A semi-structured interview on visual hallucinations was given to 300 adult low-vision patients and 200 elderly general ophthalmic patients. Positive cases were examined with the Geriatric Mental State Schedule and the Mini Mental State Examination. Diagnostic criteria were as follows: complex, ...

The Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is characterized by the presence of complex visual hallucinations in psychologically normal people. The syndrome occurs predominantly in the visually handicapped elderly. Little is known about its etiology and pathogenesis. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of CBS with psychological and social determinants. All subjects were patients older than 64 years from a low-vision unit. Using a case-control approach, 50 patients with CBS and 80 ...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the effects of depression on the mortality rates of elderly subjects with dementia.

METHODS: Logistic regression analysis, adjusting for possible confounders, was used to study the associations between GMS-AGECAT derived syndrome and symptom measures and 12-month mortality rates in a cohort of 73 elderly subjects who met the DSM-III-R criteria of dementia with a median MMSE score of 19.

RESULTS: Twenty-three subjects (32%) died within the 12 month ...

BACKGROUND: A persistent course of depression has been described in subjects with and without dementia. Up to the present it is unclear to what extent dementia affects the prognosis of depression.

METHOD: At baseline and at 6 and 12 months follow-up AGECAT depression diagnoses were made in 49 subjects with and 72 subjects without DSM-III-R dementia living in homes for the elderly.

RESULTS: Adjusting for demographic characteristics and physical health, dementia was not associated with the ...

A group of 14 patients with isolated visual hallucinations who met the criteria proposed by Gold and Rabins for Charles Bonnet syndrome (with the exception of the criterion "hallucinations are stereotyped") underwent psychiatric, neurologic, and ophthalmologic tests. Additional common characteristics of the hallucinations included the absence of personal meaning of the content of the hallucinations and the disappearance of the hallucinations when the patients closed their eyes. There was ...