Wertheimer J, Antonioli D
Service Universitaire de Psychogériatrie de Lausanne, Hôpital de Prilly.
Schweiz Arch Neurol Psychiatr (1985). 1994;145(2):17-22.
Psychogeriatrics is the general psychiatry of old age. It is closely related with the biological and human fundamental sciences and with the medical disciplines concerned with the care of old patients. Its issues are ubiquitous and also interest non psychiatrists, particularly geriatricians, internists, neurologists and psychologists. Therefore there is a risk for research to be spread out. As a medicine of synthesis, it must assert itself as a convergence point for the related branches. Its very vast field of research is confronted with particular methodological problems, like the chronological and biological age, the heterogeneity of the population, the polymorbidity. Psychogeriatrics is young and still requires an important involvement in the clinical tasks, in the medico-social coordination and in the teaching to medical and paramedical circles. Rare are centers having the critical mass for developing good research with complete peace of mind, Switzerland is an example of this. An analysis of the 1992 international literature shows a certain scattering of the psychogeriatric themes with a 50% predominance of papers devoted to dementias. In the future, psychogeriatrics must well limit its territory, particularly by developing services where care, teaching and research are harmonized.
老年精神病学是老年群体的普通精神病学。它与生物科学、人类基础科学以及涉及老年患者护理的医学学科密切相关。其研究问题普遍存在，也引起了非精神科医生的关注，尤其是老年病科医生、内科医生、神经科医生和心理学家。因此，存在研究分散的风险。作为一门综合性医学，它必须确立自身为相关分支的汇聚点。其极为广阔的研究领域面临着特殊的方法学问题，如实际年龄和生物学年龄、人群的异质性、多种疾病并存。老年精神病学尚年轻，在临床任务、医疗社会协调以及医学和辅助医疗领域的教学方面仍需要大量投入。具备充足资源以安心开展高质量研究的中心很少，瑞士就是一个例子。对1992年国际文献的分析表明，老年精神病学主题存在一定的分散性，其中关于痴呆症的论文占比50%。未来，老年精神病学必须明确界定其领域，特别是通过发展将护理、教学和研究相协调的服务来实现。
