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Researchers, students of human development and practitioners will find many uses for the Handbook of Geriatric Psychiatry. This book is devoted in part to understanding the biological and psychosocial basis of geriatric psychiatry. Ten articles by various authors of some standing within the field of geriatric psychiatry discuss theories and processes of aging, neuroanatomy of aging, brain physiology, neuropharmacology of aging, bodily changes and perceptual changes, the psychology of adult development, social factors, and the epidemiology of mental illness.
Busse and Blazer are both medical doctors at Duke University. In their discussion of the theories and processes of aging, they define aging operationally as “declines in functioning which can be separated into primary aging (senescence) and secondary aging (senility).” Primary aging is a biological process whose first cause apparently is rooted in heredity. Secondary aging refers to defects and disabilities which come from hostile factors in the environment, especially trauma and disease.
Both of these definitions seem unsatisfactory since they do not offer us any notion about whether aging is a normal, biological, and developmental process or a disease entity. My theoretical preference is for the former view.
References to genetic determinants of longevity speak to the issue of male and female lifespans. Contrary to the reasonable expectations of the equality of male and female births among whites in the United States, the ratio is approximately 106 newborn boys to 100 girls. Sexual imbalance is preponderant as men marry younger women. After the age of 55 there are 128 women for every 100 men; between the ages of 65 and 74, there are 130