Old Age Psychiatry
Old Age Psychiatry provides comprehensive mental health care to older people suffering from a range of disorders including dementia, depression and late onset psychosis.
A feature of the specialty is the complexity of cases, psychiatric conditions being modified by physical illness and organic mental changes. There is therefore a need for close working relationships with other hospital based clinical specialties, primary care and other agencies such as social services.
Newcastle has a long and distinguished track record of clinical and pathological research in old age psychiatry, particularly dementia, which has been underpinned by first rate clinical services. These are increasingly directed towards detecting the earliest stages of cognitive decline in specialised Memory Clinics which also form the basis for clinical research.
Patients benefit from early access to translational and treatment studies conducted by Newcastle’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centre on Ageing and in the Wellcome/NIHR Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU) supported by the NIHR Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (DeNDRoN). We have particularly close ties with Neurology and Neurosciences and Care of the Elderly services and several senior staff are recognised international authorities leading global research efforts and consensus in their fields.
Contact for Old Age Psychiatry:
Professor John O'Brien
j.t.o'brien@ncl.ac.uk
Related links:
- Royal College of Psychiatrists (Old Age Faculty)
- Institute for Ageing and Health
- Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases (DemaNDs) Research Group
- Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource
