Geriatric Psychiatry

[JMD]

2 quick questions...

I often hear about the high demand for child psychiatrists... any idea what kind of demand there is/will be for geriatric psych. given the aging population?

Also, how deep do geriatric psychiatrists delve into the tx/study of Dementia? It seems to usually be covered by neurologists... any info on psychiatrists working extensively in this area?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[ptolemy]

from what i can see, there is already a demand for geripsych and it is only going to get worse. however, there aren't that many people that i know of that are really interested in it. from what i have seen also, neuro usually dx's dementias, tries to treat it, and then when the treatment slows/fails, they get seen by psych for the confusion/delerium/psychosis for tx. hope this helps.

 

[Milo]

The Geriatric Psychiatrist I rotated with as a PG2 often liked to joke that geropsych is the only subspeciality which guarantees you'll make less as a specialist than as a general adult psychiatrist.

OTOH he has a great passion for geropsych, I doubt if he would have been happy in general, and he is severely needed in the community. The bulk of his work was DAT with behavorial disturbances.

 

[ptolemy]

They're GERIpsych, so by definition, their pts have medicare; and unless the pt has supplemental ins, which is unlikely, the pay is pretty crummy.