In the last decades a consistent growth has emerged in the fields of basic neurosciences, epidemiology, neuropsychopharmacology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, gerontology, geriatric neurology, behavioral neurology, geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine.
The major interests of the basic scientists concentrate mainly on the understanding of neurobiological aspects of aging and of the most prevalent diseases of the central nervous system, whereas in the clinical field professionals have tentatively different approaches to caring for patients suffering from SNC diseases.
The different ways of seeing similar medical problems vary accordingly to the professional background, training and expertise and reinforce the absence of boundaries that exist among many disciplines, which could be complementary. Neurologists usually focus on the brain mechanisms of the diseases and brain dysfunction, psychiatrists on the behavioral and psychological aspects of the illnesses, geriatricians on the clinical correlations of the SNC diseases with co-morbidities found. Other specialists such as psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and nurses focus on global assessments and rehabilitation processes.
Additionally, the explosion of relevant information coming form different areas of interest has supported the tendency to value an interdisciplinary approach as the most reasonable way to understand the complexity of the issues, learning from each other and promoting an exchange of information and experience and eventually transporting the acquired knowledge to help improve quality of life and promote mental health in old age.
In Brazil, this context has created a scenario for the effective integration of the disciplines bridging these fields. The Brazilian Association of Geriatric Neuropsychiatry (ABNPG) founded in 1996 has become a truly interdisciplinary association whereby the different specialties and fields are equally valued. Still to be proven in the years to come is the impact of this integrative concept for stimulating scientific investigation, supporting education, teaching, dissemination of information and eventually helping to promote better care for the patients.
Collaborative studies with similar initiative centers can help in understanding the role of this approach following the same principles of integration, autonomy and interdisciplinarity and can also serve as a support for the development of a consensus definition in a broad sense of a new integrative discipline which eventually will bring the various fields together.
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