Concise Guide to Geriatric Psychiatry

A reference guide for mental health professionals, primary care physicians and occupational and physical therapists who treat elderly patients, which aims to help them detect and treat the kind of comorbid mental disorders that are often masked by other serious medical conditions.

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As life expectancy in the United States continues to increase and the baby boom generation grows older, geriatric mental health care will assume new importance and require the development of flexible treatment approaches. Completely revised for DSM-IV, the second edition of this easy-to-use pocket-size reference text is a guide for all mental health professionals, primary care physicians, and occupational and physical therapists who treat elderly patients. It includes updated and expanded treatment sections, a wealth of tables and figures that highlight important clinical material, and an appendix with commonly used clinical assessment scales. Because older patients are more likely to rely on their primary care or family physicians rather than psychiatrists for treatment of psychological problems, this reference should help these doctors, who may not have extensive mental health or geriatric training, detect and treat comorbid mental disorders that are often masked by other serious medical conditions.