Susan Kemper A debate about the role of working memory in language processing has become center-most in psycholinguistics (Caplan & Waters, in press; Just & Carpenter, 1992; Just, Carpenter, & Keller, 1996; Waters & Caplan, 1996). This debate concerns which aspects of language processing are vulnerable to working memory limitations, how working memory is best measured, and whether compensatory processes can offset working memory limitations. Age-comparative studies are particularly relevant to this debate for several reasons: difficulties with language and communication are frequently mentioned by older adults and signal the onset of Alzheimer's dementia and other pathologies associated with age; older adults commonly experience working memory limitations that affect their ability to perform everyday activities; the rapid aging of the United States population has forced psychologists and gerontologists to examine the effects of aging on cognition, drawing many investigators to the study of cognitive aging. Older adults constitute ideal population for studying how working memory limitations affect cognitive performance, particularly language and communication. Age-comparative studies of cognitive processes have advanced our understanding of the temporal dynamics of cognition as well as the working memory demands of many types of tasks (Kliegl, Mayr, & Krampe, 1994; Mayr & Kliegl, 1993). The research findings reviewed in this volume have clear implications - for addressing the practical problems of older adults as consumers of leisure ti- reading, radio and television broadcasts, as targets of medical, legal, and financial documents, and as participants in a web of service agencies and volunteer activities.

Part of the Pittsburgh Pocket Psychiatry series, this volume comprehensively and definitively addresses geriatric psychiatry, focusing on depression, dementia, anxiety as well as managing the caregivers. Additional chapters cover psychotherapy, legal issues, alcohol and drug use, and chronic pain management. Designed to be a highly practical, clinical guide for practitioners, each chapter is clearly written by one or more faculty members from Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, many of whom are recognized experts in their field. Self-assessment questions help the student learn the material.

Europe currently is the oldest continent in the world and its population is still ageing. This demographic shift affects society, economy, and welfare states. Scholars from various disciplines and the public noted this development and wonder what effects it may have, but lack adequate information. They call for explanations that are concise and easily accessible. The book at hand fills this lacuna. It introduces readers to the most important developments, theories, concepts, and discussions in ageing studies - always keeping an eye on the current situation in Europe. Each chapter adopts the perspective of a different discipline, e.g. public health, sociology, economics, or technology. To make the explanations easy to understand, the book includes learning tools such as learning objectives, multiple choice questions, and a glossary.

Fractures in the Elderly: A Guide to Practical Management provides geriatricians and other medical specialists who provide care for older adults with the vital guidance and most current data and opinions regarding the treatment of elderly patients who sustain a variety of fractures. It also provides orthopedic surgeons with the necessary information and most current data and opinions regarding assessment and management of geriatric conditions that predispose the elderly to fracture, perioperative complications and subsequent functional decline. Each chapter is both readable and appealing not only to geriatricians and orthopedic surgeons but to all clinicians that have contact with elderly patients who have sustained or are at high risk of sustaining a fracture. Emphasis is placed on the fact that although in some cases pre- and post-operative care in elderly fracture patient may proceed as it does in younger individuals, often there are considerations owing to functional status, pre-existing conditions, and age-related physiological declines that require specialized knowledge and alternative approaches. Developed by a group of renowned experts, Fractures in the Elderly: A Guide to Practical Management is a major addition to the literature and provides a wealth of specialized knowledge and approaches to care. It is an essential reference for all clinicians who care for older adults as well as fellows and residents in training.

During our short time on earth, we all undergo the highly complex process of aging, and with it, we experience the many physiological symptoms. Studies of premature aging have produced a great deal of information that gives some aspects of aging a better understanding. This book explores Werner's syndrome. To some, Werner's syndrome is considered a caricature of aging, but others will find it fascinating that only one mutated human gene (WRN) can bring about a multitude of complicated phenotypes that are usually associated with aging.

Diet-Brain Connections fills a void between the fields of nutrition, behavior and cellular and molecular neurosciences by providing an integrated collection of articles that critically dissect the link between what we eat and how the brain develops and functions in health and disease.
Key topics covered in depth include:

-caloric restriction benefit the brain and retard aging;
-effects of dietary antioxidants on brain function and aging;
-developmental and function consequences of different dietary fatty acids;
-biochemical links between dietary folic acid and psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders;
-effects of nutritional deficit during early development and behavior disorders later in life; -neurochemical basis of the benefits of widely used dietary supplements including creatine and Gingko biloba;
-contribution of dietary toxins such as metals and pesticides to neurological disorders.This book provides an unprecedented resource for scientists in academia and government labs as well as in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food industries.

"The Common Sense Guide to Dementia for Clinicians and Caregivers" provides an easy-to-read, practical, and thoughtful approach to dementia care. Written by two specialists who have cared for thousands of patients with dementia and their families, this ground-breaking title unifies the perspectives of neurology and psychiatry to meet a variety of caregiver needs. It spotlights many real-world concerns not typically covered in standard textbooks, while simultaneously presenting a more detailed medical perspective than typical caregiver manuals.
This handy title offers expert guidance for the clinical management of dementia and compassionate support of patients and families. Designed to enhance the physician-caregiver interaction and liberally illustrated with case examples, "The Common Sense Guide" espouses general principles of dementia care that apply across the stages and spectrum of this illness, including non-Alzheimer's types of dementia, in addition to Alzheimer's disease.
Clinicians, family members, and other caregivers will find this volume useful from the moment that symptoms of dementia emerge. The authors place an emphasis on caring for the caregiver as well as the patient. Essential topics include how to find the right clinician, make the most of a doctor's visit, and avert a crisis - or manage one that can't be avoided. Sometimes difficult considerations, such as driving, financial management, legal matters, long-term placement, and end-of-life care, are faced head-on. Tried, true, and time-saving tips are explained in terms of what works - and what doesn't - with regard to clinical evaluation, medications, behavioral measures, and alternate therapies. Medical, nursing, and allied health care professionals will undoubtedly turn to this unique overview as a vital resource and mainstay of clinical dementia care, as well as a valuable recommendation for family caregivers.

This volume presents the work of clinical health care teams and natural work groups, quality improvement teams, committees, and task forces made up of employees in health care settings. It discusses proven multidimensional instruments that measure team performance along with future needs for measuring team performance. It will be a resource for medical instructors and students, public health workers, and health administrators interested in team management.

In recent years, remarkable discoveries have been made concerning the underlying mechanisms of aging. In Life-Span Extension: Single-Cell Organisms to Man, the editors bring together a range of illuminating perspectives from researchers investigating the aging process in a variety of species. This novel work addresses the aging process in species ranging from yeast to man and, among other subjects, features detailed discussions of the naked mole-rat, an exceptionally long-lived rodent; the relationship between dietary factors/food restriction and aging; and an evolutionary view of the human aging process.

Single mutations that extend life span have been identified in yeast, worms, flies, and mice, whereas studies in humans have identified potentially important markers for successful aging. At the same time, it has been discovered that the genes and pathways identified in these studies involve a surprisingly small set of conserved functions, most of which have been the focus of aging research for some time. For example, the mTOR pathway, a regulator of translation and protein synthesis, has been identified as a common longevity pathway in yeast and Caenorhabditis elegans. In mammals, this pathway intersects with neuroendocrine pathways and with the insulin/insulin-like growth factor pathways, which have been identified as major modulators of life span and aging in both invertebrates and mice.

Novel, emerging technologies and the increasingly wide variety of systems that are now used to study aging and the mechanisms of aging provide enormous opportunities for the identification of common pathways that modulate longevity. It is these common pathways that are the focus of this important volume.

This volume describes the foundational and functional competencies underlying "geropsychology," the area in professional psychology that focuses on the psychological and behavioral aspects of aging. Because of the demand for competent psychological services growing within the United States as a function of the aging of the population, the Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology recently has designated professional geropsychology as a specialty. Based in large part on the Pikes Peaks model for training in professional geropsychology, this book includes multiple chapter authors under the expert editorship of Victor Molinari. As described in chapter 1, "the ultimate goal of geropsychology is to apply scientific findings about psychological aging to improve the lives of older adults." Psychologists interested in working with older adults will find this volume both educational and aspirational.

This important handbook addresses technologies targeted at the assessment, early detection and the mitigation of common geriatric conditions. These include decline in functional abilities, gait, mobility, sleep disturbance, vision impairment, hearing loss, falls, and cognitive decline. This book not only describes the state of both embedded and wearable technologies, but also focuses on research showing the potential utility of these technologies in the field.

Because aging is accompanied by a steady decline in resistance to infectious diseases, the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases in the elderly is not only much more complex, but also often quite different from that for younger patients.

In the second edition of Infectious Disease in the Aging: A Clinical Handbook, a panel of well known and highly experienced geriatric physicians and infectious disease experts review the most important common infections affecting the elderly and delineate their well-proven diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive techniques. Among the illnesses discussed are urinary tract infections, pneumonia, ocular infections, tuberculosis, and fungal and viral infections. In addition, there are detailed discussions of sepsis, infective endocarditis, intraabdominal infections, bacterial meningitis, osteomyelitis and septic arthritis, and prosthetic device infections.

Aging research on the human eyes crosses all areas of ophthalmology and also relies upon biological, morphological, physiological, and biochemical tools for its study. This book reviews all aspects of human eye aging. In addition to descriptions of age-related changes in almost all the structures of the human eyes, the authors also include interesting accounts of personal experiments and data. It provides an extensive panorama of what happens during aging in the eye.

The Handbook of Nutrition in Ophthalmology is the first general text on nutrition and eye health created for physicians, nutritionists, and researchers. The author provides important links between the epidemic of obesity and implications it has for eye disease and blindness. The volume also includes chapters addressing nutritional aspects of preventing eye disease in diabetes mellitus and other optical neuropathies, making this a unique book.

Social differences in health and mortality constitute a persistent finding in epidemiological, demographic, and sociological research. It is a topic that is much discussed in the current political debate and it is among the most urgent public health issues. However, we still do not know whether socioeconomic mortality differences increase or decrease with age.

This book provides a comprehensive, critical discussion of all aspects involved in the relationship between socioeconomic status, health and mortality. It synthesizes the sociological theory of social inequality and an empirical study of mortality differences that has been conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock, Germany). This study is the most comprehensive analysis of socioeconomic mortality differences in the literature, both in terms of quantity and quality of data, and in terms of the statistical method used: that of event-history modeling.

- Not only written by experts but the content of each of the chapters has also been peer-reviewed.

- Presents a step-by-step approach to the treatment of chronic wounds.

- For dermatologists, but also many other medical disciplines such as general practitioners and family physicians who also treat chronic wounds.

"The Old Age Psychiatry Handbook" provides a comprehensive but concise overview of psychiatric, medical and practical issues that may arise within the speciality. The book is written in an easy assimilated format, ideal for use in the clinic and on the ward.

"The Old Age Psychiatry Handbook" includes chapters on basic history and mental state examination, specific psychiatric syndromes and prescribing for elderly psychiatric patients. It also discusses the social and legal issues faced by health care practitioners, patients, and their relatives, including mental capacity, financial entitlements and placement. The book is a compact "pocket guide," with information clearly displayed in concise tables and boxes accompanied by further detail within the text.

Written by doctors working in old age psychiatry, this guide is an indispensable reference tool for F1/F2 grades, Senior House Officers in training, General Practitioners, community psychiatric nurses and other members of the multidisciplinary team. It is also of use in preparation for the MRCPsych examinations.

A distinguished team of contributors from the fields of medicine, philosophy and law address some of the issues which arise over the provision of care for dependent elderly patients. Some of the chapters are concerned with the challenge of achieving good quality medical care, the chronic inadequacies of policy making in the UK context, and the prospects for improvement in the medium term. Other chapters look at some of the threats to dependent elderly patients posed by longer-term social and ideological trends which find expression in proposals for age-limits to health care, advocacy of living wills and euthanasia, arguments for withdrawing tube-feeding from certain categories of patient, and certain proposals for resource allocation. This interdisciplinary volume will have a wide appeal to those involved in care of the dependent elderly, to health policy analysts and health care economists, and to bioethicists.

Anemia in the elderly has been properly defined as the silent epidemic, representing 3 million people in the United States aged 65 years and older. Incidence and prevalence of this condition increase with age. It differs in its etiology, pathogenesis and treatment from anemia in children and younger adults. Anemia is associated with reduced survival, increased risk of functional dependence and hospitalization, increased risk of congestive heart failure and stage renal disease and cognitive disorders. Approximately 70% of anemia in older individuals is reversible.

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems facing older people, and it is often unrecognised and usually under-treated. Integrated Management of Depression in the Elderly provides an entirely new approach to understanding late-life depression, by using a series of case studies with commentaries from practitioners internationally. The book covers the epidemiology, presentation and diagnosis of depression in older people and outlines current evidence for effective management drawing on recently published work. The substantive part of the book presents ten case studies of increasing complexity, each case has a commentary from a primary care clinician and a health or social care professional, to outline how professionals should work together to manage the patient within their community. Contributions from world experts give the book an international appeal. It will appeal to a wide audience of health and social care professionals together with psychiatrists-in-training.

You and Your Aging Parent, originally published in 1976, was the first book to focus on the relationship between adult children and their aging parents. By noted gerontologist Barbara Silverstone and writer Helen Kandel Hyman, it turned the spotlight on the challenges faced by many adult children as they attempt to cope when elderly relatives need increasing support. Since the last edition of the book in 1989, numerous other books on the topic have entered the market, but most of them are superficial in the information and advice they provide to their readers and in the one-note assumptions about the parent-child relationship in the senior years. Moreover, programs and services for older people have changed significantly and become more comlex; a new generation of adult children and their parents are facing the challenges of aging, and recent research findings have deepened our understanding of the aging process and late life. This revised edition, marking its 30th anniversary, will address the changes that have taken place and revive its fundamental insight - that the difficulties and challenges of the aging process are as much a family affair as in any other phase of life and that the nature of the relationship between aging parents and their adult children will directly influence how the process is navigated. The size of the senior class is growing exponentially, including parents who are living longer than any older generation in history and baby boomers who are reluctantly entering the senior class, as well as countless younger sons and daughters wondering what's coming next. This new and updated edition will answer their need for authoritative, practical information about this major new phase of life. Playwright and New York Times columnist Bob Morris joins the book as commentator, adding his own entertaining insights as a member of the baby boom generation dealing with his own elderly parents' late life.

The significance of hormone action in psychiatry has long been studied, but only recently has this study included the psychiatric effects of hormones on the aging process. Hormones influence a wide scope of states and conditions, ranging from pain tolerance and anorexia to attention, mood, immunity, cardiovascular and cognitive function, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. Written by an eminent team of psychiatrists, psychologists, geriatricians, and neuropharmacologists, this pioneering clinical reference addresses the hormonal basis of mental disorders in older people. This book brings together established information and recent findings in four sections:

• An overview of the basic science of neurosteroids
• Sex difference and the roles that cortisol, thyroid hormone, and the sex steroids estrogen, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone play in common mental disorders and pain sensitivity
• Psychoneuroimmunology in relation to age
• Sex differences and hormones in psychotropic drug metabolism in the elderly.

The book covers topics ranging from basic sciences (developmental changes in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and effects of neuropharmacology) to special situations such as brain death, ethical issues and palliative care. It discusses various neurological surgical problems and their challenges along with common problems such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. A section on Pain covers all possible modalities for relieving pain in this patient population followed by the important issue of palliative care. The book addresses the issue of cognition decline, common in this group. The fact that basic sciences are included along with clinical sciences makes it a unique read for the audience.

Until recently the literature has sadly neglected the commonest disorders of old age which, lacking a demonstrable organic basis, have tended to be called 'functional'. Professor Chiu and Dr Ames provide us with the first comprehensive text to deal with all the non-dementing psychiatric disorders in a practical guide and exhaustive reference. Interfacing psychiatry and somatic medicine, and confronting the issues of co-morbidity, this text clearly outlines our core knowledge about clinical problems, discussing appropriate treatments and highlighting areas for future research. Along with case histories which bring much of the detail into lively focus, chapters are neatly cross-referenced and are rich in practical advice for multidisciplinary management strategies. A unique group of contributors of international renown includes members of a number of allied health disciplines relevant to old-age psychiatry. This text is sure to be of widespread interest to all professionals concerned with the health of older people.

Aging has long since been ascribed to the gradual accumulation of DNA mutations in the genome of somatic cells. However, it is only recently that the necessary sophisticated technology has been developed to begin testing this theory and its consequences. Vijg critically reviews the concept of genomic instability as a possible universal cause of aging in the context of a new, holistic understanding of genome functioning in complex organisms resulting from recent advances in functional genomics and systems biology. It provides an up-to-date synthesis of current research, as well as a look ahead to the design of strategies to retard or reverse the deleterious effects of aging. This is particularly important in a time when we are urgently trying to unravel the genetic component of aging-related diseases. Moreover, there is a growing public recognition of the imperative of understanding more about the underlying biology of aging, driven by continuing demographic change.