The Handbook of Mental Health and Aging, Third Edition provides a foundational background for practitioners and researchers to understand mental health care in older adults as presented by leading experts in the field. Wherever possible, chapters integrate research into clinical practice. The book opens with conceptual factors, such as the epidemiology of mental health disorders in aging and cultural factors that impact mental health. The book transitions into neurobiological-based topics such as biomarkers, age-related structural changes in the brain, and current models of accelerated aging in mental health. Clinical topics include dementia, neuropsychology, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, mood disorders, anxiety, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, and substance abuse. The book closes with current and future trends in geriatric mental health, including the brain functional connectome, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), technology-based interventions, and treatment innovations.
- Identifies factors influencing mental health in older adults
- Includes biological, sociological, and psychological factors
- Reviews epidemiology of different mental health disorders
- Supplies separate chapters on grief, schizophrenia, mood, anxiety, and sleep disorders
- Discusses biomarkers and genetics of mental health and aging
- Provides assessment and treatment approaches
Dr. Nathan Hantke is assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health and Science University and a board certified clinical neuropsychologist with experience assessing cognitive problems in adults across a wide range of diagnoses, including memory disorders, head injury, movement disorders, and epilepsy. His primary research interests are in geriatric neuropsychology, and he has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and book chapters examining late-life cognitive decline and related risk factors. In addition to his clinical and research roles, he also serves as the national Co-Director for the VA’s 27-site research fellowship program in mental illness research and treatment.
Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a member of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, and an Investigator in the VA Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the Palo Alto VA. Dr. Etkin is trained as both as a neuroscientist and psychiatrist. The overarching aim of the Etkin lab is to understand the neural basis of emotional disorders and their treatment, and to leverage this knowledge to better understand how the brain works and to develop novel treatment interventions. In support of this goal, Dr. Etkin also collaborates with neuroscientists, engineers, psychologists, physicians and others to establish a new intellectual, scientific and clinical paradigm for understanding and manipulating human brain circuits in healthy individuals and for treating psychiatric disease.
Dr. Ruth O’Hara is an Associate Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Translational Research Core of the Veterans Affairs Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). Her research focuses on longitudinal investigations of the relationship between neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in normal and pathological aging. She served on the DSM 5 Sleep Wake Workgroup, and was a member of the national VA Dementia Guidelines Committee. Her current research has a primary emphasis on the impact of sleep disordered breathing, sleep apnea and associated hypoxia on psychiatric symptoms and cognitive function in older adults. She has extensive experience conducting full ambulatory polysomnography in a broad range of late life disorders, with hundreds of such studies conducted in her laboratory to date.
