Geriatrics Today-An Overview
EWALD W. BUSSE M.D.1
1 J. P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, and Director, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N. C. 27706
Biological aging can be studied on a number of levels; scientists have not settled on a single explanation although there are a number of intriguing theories. The psychiatrist should seek to understand the effects of aging (including perceptual changes) and of chronic disease upon the psyche. Various therapeutic approaches that have proved effective with certain disorders common to the aged are discussed.
