Factoids:

The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.

  -Socrates

• By spotting the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease and differentiating them from those of other dementias or drug interactions, geriatric psychiatrists can prescribe drugs to improve brain function soon enough to slow the progression of the disease. (AARP)


• Researchers are learning that such activities as board games or cards, playing a musical instrument, reading, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, and even ordinary social interaction increase mental function. A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that performing one such activity—playing Risk or Scrabble, for example—just once a week is associated with a 7 percent reduced risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's. Performing more activities more frequently may cut risk as much as 63 percent.


• Experts say that substance abuse among older Americans, including the abuse of alcohol and prescription and over-the-counter drugs, is under-diagnosed and under-treated; geriatric psychiatrists can often see warning signs that primary care physicians miss. (AARP)


• Americans 65 and older have the highest suicide rate of any age group; they account for about 13 percent of the population but nearly 19 percent of all suicides. Half of all older people who commit suicide had seen their doctor in the month before their death. Geriatric psychiatrists may be able to spot hidden suicidal tendencies that elude other doctors. (AARP)

Be careful not to let your ignorance destroy you. Use the correct brain hemisphere at the precise time.

Learning Styles:

Kolb developed one of the most popular theories of learning styles with four learning types:

[Back to Top]