Geriatric psychiatry

[4] The origins of geriatric psychiatry began with Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist who first identified amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in a fifty-year-old woman he called Auguste D. These plaques and tangles were later identified as being responsible for her behavioural symptoms, short-term memory loss, and psychiatric symptoms.

White is a pioneer in geriatric psychiatry, being among the first psychiatrists nationally to achieve board certification in the field.

[11] Geriatric psychiatrists may perform neurological examinations, mental status examination, laboratory investigations, neuroimaging, cognitive assessments to investigate the causes of psychiatric or neurologic symptoms in old age.

Doctors who have membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists can undertake a three or four-year training programme to become a specialist in Old Age Psychiatry.

[15] The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) is the national organization representing health care providers specializing in late life mental disorders.