Studies on psychiatric issues of 244 consecutive new residents in a nursing home were made prospectively and longitudinally. Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotic symptoms, behavioral problems, score with Hasegawa's dementia rating scale, and activity of daily living (ADL) were investigated. The prevalence rate of dementia was 88.9% (Alzheimer type, 22.5% : vascular type, 45.5%). 77.9% of the total sample had psychotic symptoms, and 44.3% had behavioral problems. In cases of Alzheimer type dementia, the severity of dementia and the number of behavioral problems significantly increased with time course, while these did not change significantly in cases of vascular dementia
