"Critical Loss" in the Eighth and Ninth Decades

Abstract

Data from the last survivors of the New York State Psychiatric Institute Twin study were examined to determine if the previously identified relationship between "critical loss" and 5-year survivorship still held true for persons in their eighth and ninth decades of life. Twenty-two subjects (age range 83 to 99 years) were tested in 1973 and by 1978, 12 had died, making it possible to retrospectively examine the relationship between survivorship and critical loss. "Critical loss" did not distinguish survivors from decedents, but presence or absence of OBS did distinguish the groups, with seven of eleven decedents and none of eight survivors being so diagnosed. Survivors did not differ significantly from non-survivors in annual rate of decline on any of the three "critical loss" tests (Vocabulary, Similarities, Digit Symbol Substitution), though survivors had higher mean scores on all three tests.

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