Psychogeriatric training began in the United Kingdom in the 1950’s. In the 1960’s, the first formal training program in the USA in geriatric psychiatry was established at Duke University under the leadership of Ewald Busse, MD. There was an emphasis on biopsychosocial training, and eminent geriatric psychiatrists emerged from that program. Over the period of the next decade, more than a dozen additional programs grew up around the United States. Activity was spurred on by the formation of the NIMH Center for the Study of the Mental Health of the Aging, as well as the advocacy work of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association’s Council for Aging.
Since 1980, there have been a plethora of new programs, culminating in added qualifications in geriatric psychiatry in 1991. Though interest in the field is high, economics have slowed the growth of geriatric psychiatry training. Further, from psychiatry’s original roots in neurology, there has been substantial growth in geriatric psychiatry as a field. Current trends in American psychiatry may result in a return to more integration with neurology or internal medicine programs.
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