Saturday, Oct. 29
14:30 – 16:30 (2 hrs)
Meeting Room: Maple (Mezzanine)
Shabbir Amanullah*, MD, FRCPC; Amer Burhan, FRCPC; Simon Davies, FRCPC; Angela Golas, FRCPC
Supported by the Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Leader
2. Professional
3. Scholar

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Learn about the latest interventions in anxiety disorders in the elderly; 2) Learn about psychosis and neuropsychiatric issues in the elderly; and 3) Recognize the impact of COVID-19 in the elderly.

The rapidly increasing numbers of our aging Canadian population means we need to be able to deliver health care at an affordable cost while recognizing the urgent need for knowledge transfer. Several of the main pharmacological strategies across the anxiety disorders beyond SSRIs and SNRIs will be examined. The talk will include discussion of the evidence for and issues with prescribing pregabalin in generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder and the roles of mirtazapine augmentation, benzodiazepines, vortioxetine, levomilnacipran, buspirone, and antipsychotics. Emerging evidence for ketamine in anxiety disorders will be described. Over 100,000 Canadians live with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), most aged above 60 years. Psychiatric symptoms of PD are diverse, have a significant impact on quality of life and function, and can be more disabling than the motor features. These symptoms add significant complexity to the management of the illness. The point prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in PD is high. Affective (depression, anxiety, and apathy), psychotic, and impulse control disorders will be the focus of this talk covering prevalence, diagnostic, and therapeutic issues. Other symptoms like sleep and cognitive difficulties will be covered briefly. In this workshop, members from the Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry will provide updates on the management of common mental health conditions in older adults: anxiety disorders, depression, neuropsychiatric issues in the elderly with Parkinson’s and related conditions, and the impact of COVID-19 on the elderly. Recent guidelines related to the management of psychosis in older adults will be presented as well.

References:

1. Ismail Z, Black SE, Camicioli R, et al. Recommendations of the 5th Canadian Consensus Conference on the diagnosis and treatment of dementia. Alzheimers Dement 2020;16:1182–95.
2. Ross E, Khan S, Burhan AM. Psychiatric symptoms comorbid with neurological syndromes. In: Fenn H, Hategan A, Bourgeois J, editors. Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry. New York (NY): Springer; 2019.