Geriatric emergencies: psychiatric or medical?

To determine how the elderly use the emergency room, the authors compared emergency patients 65 years old and older with younger patients in terms of demographics, clinical factors, patterns of emergency room use, and clinicians' responses. They found that, like younger patients, the elderly had scanty social supports but, unlike younger patients, came for care repeatedly with somatic complaints. Despite coexisting medical and psychiatric illnesses, these patients were generally managed by one service without consultation from the other. The authors, who found no differences in physicians' attitudes toward younger and older patients, emphasize the need for a holistic, psychobiologic approach to the care of the elderly emergency patient.