Geriatrics or geriatric medicine[1] is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people.[2] It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician or geriatric physician, a physician who specializes in the care of elderly people. Rather, this decision is determined by the individual patient's needs, and the availability of a specialist.

MCI confers increased risk of death

Patients with mild cognitive impairment were 80% more likely to die over a 6-year period than cognitively normal patients. The risks were significantly elevated for both patients with amnestic and...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

Harness the ‘placebo’ in late-life depression

ORLANDO – The bad news about antidepressant therapy for patients whose first episode of depression occurs in late life is that the randomized trials show it’s no better than placebo. The good news is...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

Key points in managing late-life anxiety

ORLANDO – Do SSRIs actually work for late-life generalized anxiety disorder? "I think the answer is, ‘Yes, a little.’ The benefits are limited in the randomized controlled trials and in my own...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

Elderly suicide prevention: Focus on housing transition

ORLANDO – Transition to an assisted-living facility or nursing home is a period of high risk for suicide among the elderly – as well as an opportunity for preventive intervention. That was the key...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

Memory-disorder care program costs little but saves much

WASHINGTON – A collaborative care program that supports both Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers saved an Indiana health care system more than $1 million during its initial yearlong test period. The...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

VIDEO: Feeding elderly patients after hip surgery

LAS VEGAS – Among 100 hip fracture patients at Salem (Ore.) Hospital, those fed within 24 hours left the hospital sooner, and fewer of them died. Other patients went up to a week without being...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

Antipsychotics’ risk in dementia revised upward

ORLANDO – The mortality risk associated with prescription of antipsychotics or valproic acid for behavioral disturbances in patients with dementia is considerably greater than previously estimated,...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

ECT electrode placement matters most in elderly

ORLANDO – Right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy at six times the seizure threshold is markedly more effective in severely depressed patients aged 60 and older than in those who are younger,...

Field of Interest: Geriatrics
Type: News Item

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