Guide to the Psychiatry of Old Age

David Ames is an Emeritus Professor in the Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Damien Gallagher is an Old Age Psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. Samantha Loi is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and an Old Age Psychiatrist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia. Tom Russ is Director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh and Network Champion for the Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network, NHS Research Scotland.

• 1. What is the psychiatry of old age and why do we need it?; 2. Assessing the elderly psychiatric patient; 3. Differential diagnosis – The 3 Ds; 4. The dementias; 5. Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia; 6. Delirium; 7. Mood disorders in late life (A – Depression, B – Bipolar disorder and mania); 8. Schizophrenia and related disorders in late life; 9. Neurotic and personality disorders (A – Neurotic disorders, B – Personality disorders); 10. Substance abuse and Iatrogenesis in late life; 11. Services for older patients with psychiatric disorders; 12. The future of the psychiatry of old age.