Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Marmara Ãœniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi Psikiyatri Anabilim Dalı, Ä°STANBUL Geriatric psychiatry is a subspeciality which is gaining importance recently. Dementia syndromes are among the major subjects of this subspeciality. Unfortunately most of the psychiatry departments in our country have not given enough consideration to this subspeciality yet. Geriatric psychiatrist has advantages or disadvantages when compared with other specialist managing dementia. Making differential diagnosis of dementia from other psychiatric conditions, identifying behavioral symptoms better, experience with administeration of psychotropic medications, experience in rapport with elderly and managing caregiver distress more skillfully may be counted as advantages. In this study, data of a geriatric psychiatry memory disorders clinic for thirteen months are presented. Demographical information, distribution of diagnosis, frequency of behavioral disorders and choices of treatment are presented. Mean age of 54 patients was 73,96. Seventy percent of these patients fullfilled the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for dementia. Sixty four percent of patients were in phase 5 or over on Global Deterioration Scale. Frequency of behavioral symptoms were found significantly higher correlated with higher phases. Seventy four percent of dementia patients were prescribed cholinesterase inhibitors. This presentation is the first report of the data of a geriatric psychiatry memory disorder clinic in our country. Geriatric psychiatrists are among the major specialists to whom dementia patients may be referred. Keywords : Dementia, Memory disorders clinic, Geriatric psychiatry, Alzheimer’s Disease.