Changing Characteristics of Psychiatrists Who Treat Geriatric Patients

The authors used the 1982 and 1988-89 American Psychiatric Association's Professional Activities Surveys (PAS) to describe changes in selected characteristics of United States psychiatrists treating patients age 65 and older. High geriatric case volume (HGCV) categories were considered if these exceeded 20% during the last typical full work week. The authors compared selected demographic and work-setting variables across surveys and generated a logit multivariate regression model to predict geriatric case volume. Between 1982 and 1988-89, the overall proportion of psychiatrist respondents reporting HGCVs increased by 98.6%, with significant increases for all demographic and most primary work-setting categories. The analysis suggests that during the 1980s the proportion of American psychiatrists reporting HGCVs increased across a broad range of demographic and work-setting categories, but growth in case volume in outpatient service settings lagged behind.