Clinical Topics in Old Age Psychiatry

This book updates articles previously published in BJPsych Advances to compile a current review of noteworthy subjects in old age psychiatry. It opens with epidemiology, then offers information and advice about a variety of disorders, including rare and unusual dementias. It considers assessment, from cognitive testing and the use of neuroimaging, to newer issues around biomarkers. Turning to treatment and management, the book provides readers with up-to-date evidence-based guidance on common situations that clinicians face, from home assessments to giving advice about driving. It refreshingly discusses self-management and the notion of recovery; it reviews the literature on psychosocial interventions and palliative care; and it tackles delirium and depression. The final chapters explore related legal, ethical, and philosophical issues. Written for old age psychiatrists and trainees, but also relevant to other health and social care workers, this text shows the excitement of old age psychiatry – its importance, breadth, and depth.

• Provides up-to-date evidence-based information, acting as an invaluable source for continuing professional development
• Contains chapters from a multidisciplinary group of contributors on emerging issues, from the scientific to the socio-ethical to the legal, introducing practitioners to new ideas
• Sheds light on topics that are everyday matters but are less frequently discussed in the literature, reminding clinicians of topics with which they are familiar but about which it is prudent to be reflective and informed in their thinking
• Updates classic articles, previously published in BJPsych Advances

Julian Hughes, Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre, Newcastle University; The Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice in Health and Social Care, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford
Julian C. Hughes is Honorary Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Bristol, and Visiting Professor of Philosophy of Ageing at the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre, Newcastle University, UK. During his time as a fellow of both the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, he has also advised various national and international bodies and served as deputy chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. With Toby Williamson, he wrote The Dementia Manifesto (Cambridge, 2019).

Philippa Lilford, Severn Deanery, University of Bristol
Philippa Lilford is an ST5 General Adult and Old Age Registrar in the Severn Deanery (Severn Postgraduate Medical Education School of Psychiatry) and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. She has worked as a psychiatrist in Malawi in 2015 and has recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust-funded clinical primer with Cardiff University, researching the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric illness. She has an interest in global mental health, and healthcare law and ethics.