Clinical Topics in Old Age Psychiatry

Description

This book updates articles previously published in BJPsych Advances to compile a current review of noteworthy subjects in old age psychiatry. It opens with epidemiology, then offers information and advice about a variety of disorders, including rare and unusual dementias. It considers assessment, from cognitive testing and the use of neuroimaging, to newer issues around biomarkers. Turning to treatment and management, the book provides readers with up-to-date evidence-based guidance on common situations that clinicians face, from home assessments to giving advice about driving. It refreshingly discusses self-management and the notion of recovery; it reviews the literature on psychosocial interventions and palliative care; and it tackles delirium and depression. The final chapters explore related legal, ethical, and philosophical issues. Written for old age psychiatrists and trainees, but also relevant to other health and social care workers, this text shows the excitement of old age psychiatry - its importance, breadth, and depth.

Julian C. Hughes is Honorary Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Bristol, and Visiting Professor of Philosophy of Ageing at the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre, Newcastle University, UK. During his time as a fellow of both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, he has also advised various national and international bodies and served as deputy chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. With Toby Williamson, he wrote The Dementia Manifesto (Cambridge, 2019). Philippa Lilford is an ST5 General Adult and Old Age Registrar in the Severn Deanery (Severn Postgraduate Medical Education School of Psychiatry) and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. She has worked as a psychiatrist in Malawi in 2015 and has recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust-funded clinical primer with Cardiff University, researching the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric illness. She has an interest in global mental health, and healthcare law and ethics.

'Although Professor Hughes and Dr Lilford are clear that this is not a textbook, it could usefully be viewed as one, with an extraordinary breadth of contributors. As a consultant old age psychiatrist I found the up to date and readable summaries of a wide range of topics really helpful, from help in day to day diagnosis and management to thought-provoking meditations on personhood and ethics. As a clinician I was also introduced to a number of new concepts in both neuropsychiatric investigations and social care. It is a collection of essays that I can thoroughly recommend to all old age psychiatrists, or those who would wish to be so.' Dr Matt Jelley MBChB FRCPsych, Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist for Older People, Royal United Hospital, Bath 'This book ... provide a current perspective of various disorders seen in geriatric psychiatry as well as up-to-date, evidence-based guidance on common clinical presentations ... This book is mainly aimed at consultants and trainees in geriatric psychiatry, but it will also be of interest to clinician's who work with this population from gerontologists to mental health and general nurses, social workers, occupational and speech and language therapists, and all other healthcare professionals that work with an elderly population.' Michael Easton, Doody's Book Review Service