DIAGNOSTIC CONSIDERATIONS IN EVALUATING GERIATRIC PATIENTS WITH MOVEMENT DISORDERS: Session 105

Abstract

Dr. Joel Mack is a geriatric psychiatrist affiliated with the Oregon Health & Science University and the VA Hospital in Portland, OR. Dr. Mack will discuss aspects of the history and exam in functional movement disorders (FMDs) and the role the geriatric psychiatrist may play in a multidisciplinary approach to these disorders. FMD's may be characterized by the full range of movement disorder phenomena but are inconsistent and incongruent with known “organic” neurological movement disorder syndromes. Despite the common belief that FMDs are a problem of the young, they are not uncommon among elderly movement disorder patients. Dr. Stewart Factor is currently Professor of Neurology, Director of the Movement Disorders Program and Vance Lanier Chair of Neurology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Factor has collected hundreds of videos of neurologic patients with movement disorders and will focus his talk on the neurological evaluation of gait and the use of gait to both diagnose neurological dysfunction as well as subtle clues to a potential conversion disorders in the presentation. Dr. Laura Marsh is Executive Director of the Mental Health Care Line at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, TX where she is also Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Director of the UCNS Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry Fellowship at BCM. Dr. Marsh will focus on anxiety disorders and their treatment in common neurological diseases in the elderly and highlights her work in Parkinson's disease (PD). She will also highlight anxiety as it relates to fear of falling, an important topic in the elderly and particularly relevant to elderly patients with gait disorders.