Comparing Mentalizing Abilities in Older Adults with and without Common Mental Disorders

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparing Mentalizing Abilities in Older Adults with and without Common Mental Disorders

AU - Peters, Meinolf

AU - Schulz, Holger

N1 - © 2022 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - INTRODUCTION: The concept of mentalization is of central importance not only in modern psychotherapy but also in geriatric psychotherapy. In relation to older people, deficits in some aspects of the ability to mentalize, such as the theory of mind (ToM), affect perception, and metacognitive skills, are known. However, little is known about the mentalization ability of older people with mental disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mentalizing abilities of older patients with depressive and anxious symptoms.METHODS: In this study, the ability to mentalize using the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ), the HEALTH-49 questionnaire, Trail-Making Test (executive functions), and Reading-the-Mind-in-the-eyes-test (ToM) was studied in a clinical (n = 150) and a nonclinical comparison sample of people (n = 150) in different age groups (40-54, 55-69, ≥70). The evaluation of the data was conducted with different statistical methods, especially variance and regression analyses.RESULTS: The clinical sample of all age groups showed significantly poorer mentalizing skills than the nonclinical samples. There were large correlations to health-related aspects. Additionally, in the regression analysis, only the setting variable (clinical vs. nonclinical) had an influence on the MZQ score and neither gender, education, executive functions nor ToM had a significant influence. Age also had no effect and did not correlate with MZQ scores but did correlate negatively with ToM.CONCLUSIONS: The results show the importance of mentalization concepts for mental disorders in patients in the second half of life. There are indications of an imbalance of different aspects of mentalizing ability, especially between self- and other-related mentalizing abilities. Improving this balance could be a goal of therapeutic interventions.

AB - INTRODUCTION: The concept of mentalization is of central importance not only in modern psychotherapy but also in geriatric psychotherapy. In relation to older people, deficits in some aspects of the ability to mentalize, such as the theory of mind (ToM), affect perception, and metacognitive skills, are known. However, little is known about the mentalization ability of older people with mental disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mentalizing abilities of older patients with depressive and anxious symptoms.METHODS: In this study, the ability to mentalize using the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ), the HEALTH-49 questionnaire, Trail-Making Test (executive functions), and Reading-the-Mind-in-the-eyes-test (ToM) was studied in a clinical (n = 150) and a nonclinical comparison sample of people (n = 150) in different age groups (40-54, 55-69, ≥70). The evaluation of the data was conducted with different statistical methods, especially variance and regression analyses.RESULTS: The clinical sample of all age groups showed significantly poorer mentalizing skills than the nonclinical samples. There were large correlations to health-related aspects. Additionally, in the regression analysis, only the setting variable (clinical vs. nonclinical) had an influence on the MZQ score and neither gender, education, executive functions nor ToM had a significant influence. Age also had no effect and did not correlate with MZQ scores but did correlate negatively with ToM.CONCLUSIONS: The results show the importance of mentalization concepts for mental disorders in patients in the second half of life. There are indications of an imbalance of different aspects of mentalizing ability, especially between self- and other-related mentalizing abilities. Improving this balance could be a goal of therapeutic interventions.

U2 - 10.1159/000522309

DO - 10.1159/000522309

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 35249029

VL - 55

SP - 235

EP - 243

JO - PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

JF - PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

SN - 0254-4962

IS - 3-4

ER -