The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry’s (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting was held March 27-30 at the Marriott in New Orleans, LA. The AAGP Meeting is the premier educational event in geriatric mental health care, providing the latest information on clinical care, research on aging and mental health and models of care. The theme of this years meeting was “Inter-professional Practice: Working Together to Meet the Mental Health Needs of Older Adults.”
On Monday March 30, 2015 representatives from the University of Florida presented “Opiate Use Disorders and Pain in the Elderly: Integrating Care with the Pain Specialist” The presenters included Uma Suryadevara, MD, Gabriel Pauilan, MD, Christopher Ong, MD, and Yuliet Sanchez-Rivero, MD. Chronic pain is one of the most common disorders in the elderly and is closely associated with physical and emotional dysfunction. Management of pain is often challenging given the thin line between addiction and treatment of pain. This session helped providers learn how to screen for addiction and then to address pain and addiction issues effectively.
