[Old age as a special and integrated field, from the neurologic viewpoint]

Geriatrics and rehabilitation show a wide overlapping. On the one hand, the approach has to be of a specialized nature, while, on the other hand, both spheres can be dealt with in an interdisciplinary context only without strict boundaries between medical and non-medical fields. Our phrase "via neuro-rehabilitation towards a social neurology" complies with the increase in the geriatric clientele and emphasizes the social necessity of long-term care for the patients inabled by geriatric disorder. Important instruments in this respect are the training of relatives and the follow-up rehabilitation service, the latter having been established in Vorarlberg as the first of its kind within the German-speaking countries. The specific geriatric aspect of medication have to be known and applied. Special reference is given to the goal-directed use of antidepressants in the amelioration of what we got to call "concomitant depression", one of the main causative factors in the so-called "rehabilitation hospitalism". Goal-Directed psychotherapy in advanced age has been systematically administered and evaluated in our institution. It can be regarded as an essential psychohygienic measure. Worth mentioning are furthermore several other psychohygienic provisions, such as rational and systematic preparation for retirement with appropriate legal measures in order to prevent an artificial restriction of reasonable activity in advanced age.