The focus of this month’s journal is Older Adults and Mental Health. This area is one of paramount importance to those who care for older adults, and the greatest challenge lies in managing Alzheimer’s disease and its complications. Our CME article this month, “Paranoid Symptoms among Older Adults” by Dr. Muzumel Chaudhary and Dr. Kiran Rabheru, is on a common syndrome with numerous underlying causes. Dr. Svante Östling contributes an article on “Presentation of Psychosis,” an issue that may not come to mind automatically for the nonpsychiatrist assessing an older adult. Dr. Keri-Leigh Cassidy and Dr. Neil Rector provide an intriguing article “The Silent Geriatric Giant: Anxiety Disorders in Late Life.” This article should force all of us to pause before writing our next prescription for benzodiazepines. We all complain about our memory at times, but Dr. Mario Masellis and Dr. Sandra Black advise us on what to do when our patients similarly complain in their article “Assessing Patients Complaining of Memory Impairment.”
Rounding off this issue we have an article on “Management of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Older Adults with Peripheral Arterial Disease” by Nicholas Giacomini and Dr. Roberta Oka, and one on a recent pharmacological controversy, “Thiazolidinediones and Cardiovascular Disease: Balancing Benefit and Harm” by Dr. Sonal Singh and Dr. Yoon Loke.
Our journal has consistently focused on practical articles that physicians can immediately use to help their older patients. However, an esteemed colleague of mine (and regular reader of Geriatrics & Aging) recently commented to me that physicians face their own challenges as they age. I am currently trying to find someone with expertise to write an article on the problems that older physicians (myself included) experience. I would appreciate any comments, anecdotes, and experiences that you, our readers, might contribute to this topic. If you have anything you would like to share, please contact our Managing Editor Andrea Németh by email (anemeth@geriatricsandaging.ca), by fax (416-480-9449), or by regular mail (162 Cumberland Street, ste. 300, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 3N5).
Enjoy this month’s articles,
Barry Goldlist
