Neurology is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system.
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly mental issues. Sometimes a psychiatrist works within a multi-disciplinary team, which may comprise clinical psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, and nursing staff. Psychiatrists have broad training in a biopsychosocial approach to the assessment and management of mental illness.
Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform everyday activities. This typically involves problems with memory, thinking, behavior, and motor control. Aside from memory impairment and a disruption in thought patterns, the most common symptoms of dementia include emotional problems, difficulties with language, and decreased motivation. The symptoms may be described as occurring in a continuum over several stages. Dementia ultimately has a significant effect on the individual, their caregivers, and their social relationships in general. A diagnosis of dementia requires the observation of a change from a person's usual mental functioning and a greater cognitive decline than might be caused by the normal aging process.
The Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists is a member College of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. It oversees the provision of specialist training and continuing medical education in psychiatry in Hong Kong.
Addiction medicine is a medical subspecialty that deals with the diagnosis, prevention, evaluation, treatment, and recovery of persons with addiction, of those with substance-related and addictive disorders, and of people who show unhealthy use of substances including alcohol, nicotine, prescription medicine and other illicit and licit drugs. The medical subspecialty often crosses over into other areas, since various aspects of addiction fall within the fields of public health, psychology, social work, mental health counseling, psychiatry, and internal medicine, among others. Incorporated within the specialty are the processes of detoxification, rehabilitation, harm reduction, abstinence-based treatment, individual and group therapies, oversight of halfway houses, treatment of withdrawal-related symptoms, acute intervention, and long term therapies designed to reduce likelihood of relapse. Some specialists, primarily those who also have expertise in family medicine or internal medicine, also provide treatment for disease states commonly associated with substance use, such as hepatitis and HIV infection.
Alcohol-related dementia (ARD) is a form of dementia caused by long-term, excessive consumption of alcohol, resulting in neurological damage and impaired cognitive function.
Pseudodementia is a condition that leads to cognitive and functional impairment imitating dementia that is secondary to psychiatric disorders, especially depression. Pseudodementia can develop in a wide range of neuropsychiatric disease such as depression, schizophrenia and other psychosis, mania, dissociative disorders, and conversion disorders. The presentations of pseudodementia may mimic organic dementia, but are essentially reversible on treatment and doesn't lead to actual brain degeneration. However, it has been found that some of the cognitive symptoms associated with pseudodementia can persist as residual symptoms and even transform into true neurodegenerative dementia in some cases.
The NINCDS-ADRDA Alzheimer's Criteria were proposed in 1984 by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association and are among the most used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These criteria require that the presence of cognitive impairment and a suspected dementia syndrome be confirmed by neuropsychological testing for a clinical diagnosis of possible or probable AD; while they need histopathologic confirmation for the definitive diagnosis. They specify as well eight cognitive domains that may be impaired in AD. These criteria have shown good reliability and validity.
Solomon Carter Fuller was a pioneering Liberian neurologist, psychiatrist, pathologist, and professor. Born in Monrovia, Liberia, he completed his college education and medical degree (MD) in the United States. He studied psychiatry in Munich, Germany, then returned to the United States, where he worked for much of his career at Westborough State Hospital in Westborough, Massachusetts.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, perceptions, and emotions.
Geriatric neurology is the branch of medicine that studies neurologic disorders in elderly.
Depression is one of the most common psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease, occurring at all stages of the disease, but it often appears in a different form than other depressive disorders. In 2000, a workgroup of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health created a set of provisional diagnostic criteria for depression of Alzheimer disease (dAD) as a separate diagnostic entity in its own right.
Clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of fundamental mechanisms that underlie diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system. It seeks to develop new ways of conceptualizing and diagnosing such disorders and ultimately of developing novel treatments.
Dilip V. Jeste is an American geriatric neuropsychiatrist, who specializes in successful aging as well as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in older adults. He was senior associate dean for healthy aging and senior care, distinguished professor of psychiatry and neurosciences, Estelle and Edgar Levi Memorial Chair in Aging, director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, and co-director of the IBM-UCSD Artificial Intelligence Center for Healthy Living at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. after serving for 36 years, he retired from UC San Diego on July 1, 2022.
Perminder Sachdev is an Indian neuropsychiatrist based in Australia. He is a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), co-director of the UNSW Centre for Healthy Brain Aging, and clinical director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. He is considered a trailblazer in the field of neuropsychiatry. Sachdev's research interests include ageing, vascular cognitive disorders such as vascular dementia, and psychiatric disorders.
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry is a learned society of professionals aiming to improve the quality of life for the elderly population, promote a healthy aging process, and a greater awareness of geriatric mental health issues.
Kristine Yaffe is an American Cognitive decline and dementia researcher. She is the Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair and Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Epidemiology and the Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2019, Yaffe was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Geriatric psychology is a subfield of psychology that specializes in the mental and physical health of individuals in the later stages of life. These specialized psychologists study a variety of psychological abilities that deplete as aging occurs such as memory, learning capabilities, and coordination. Geriatric psychologists work with elderly clients to conduct the diagnosis, study, and treatment of certain mental illnesses in a variety of workplace settings. Common areas of practice include loneliness in old age, depression, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease.
Constantine G. Lyketsos is the Elizabeth Plank Althouse Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He is the founding director of the Richman Family Precision Medicine Center of Excellence in Alzheimer's Disease, and an associate director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC).
Anthony Jorm is an Australian researcher who has made contributions in the areas of psychology, psychiatry and gerontology. He also co-founded mental health first aid training with mental health educator Betty Kitchener.
