This volume represents the proceedings of a Symposium on
Psychopharmacology and the Aging Patient, held at Duke University, May
29-31, 1972. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Center for the
Study of Aging and Human Development and the Department of Psychiatry at
Duke. This Symposium was the first in a series of conferences which will
be devoted variously to preclinical and clinical pharmacology of the
different groups of psychotropic drugs, especially as they relate to the
problems of the elderly patient and to the special considerations that
must be given in theory and in practice to changes brought about by the
process of aging. The idea behind this particular symposium was to bring
basic and clinical scientists together with practicing clinicians and
other mental health professionals for an exchange of ideas and interests
through formal didactic and informal small sessions. The major interest,
of course, was to disseminate current information on the clinical use
and indication for psychoactive agents, particularly as they related to
the elderly patient. Recognition and management of psychiatric syndromes
of the elderly were included as they were pertinent to
psychopharmacology of aging to indicate the direction of ongoing work
and to stimulate further research in this area. The editors wish to
gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support xiii xiv Foreword
of the Symposium granted by the following pharmaceutical firms:
Smith-Kline-French Laboratories Pfizer Laboratories and Abbott
Laboratories Burroughs-Wellcome Company CIBA - Geigy Corporation
Lakeside Laboratories McNeil Laboratories, Inc.
