Aims

This lecture is aimed at introducing students to the specificity of the elderly persons' psychological and psychopathological problems. This implies not only knowledge of the various pathologies encountered and of the various factors lying at their cause, but also reflections on the whole therapeutic means and the attitudes of the nursing staff.

Main themes

Introduction to the relationships between the normal ageing and the psychology of the elderly persons:
1) Biological factors of the normal ageing.
2) Social factors.
3) Integration at the psychological level.
Minor psychological problems:
1) Neurotic and emotional problems
2) Cognitive and amnesic problems
3) Problems due to the affective and sexual life.
Major psychopathological disorders:
1) Delirium
2) Late-life delusional disorders
3) Mood disorders and suicide
4) "Sliding" syndrome
5) Ageing and alcoholism
6) State of dementia and other psycho-organic syndromes

Content and teaching methods

These lectures will each time consist of the description, the epidemiology, the etiopathogeny, the differential diagnosis, pharmacological treatment , psychotherapy, the re-education and lastly the ethical and socio-medical dimension. Next, we will consider the care and the help given to elderly persons in psychogeriatrics. Other subjects will be the preventive actions, the role of the nursing staff, the institutional structures, the psychotherapies with elderly persons, the systematic family approach, the body's mobility approach and the occupational therapy (ergotherapy), the psychotropic drugs, the support given to the dying and finally the legal aspects of medicine. The lecture will be given by different contributors working in psychogeriatrics: psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, etc

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Assessment: Personal essay that has to be presented during the oral examination

Other credits in programs