Two experienced and respected geriatric psychiatrists from Pittsburgh PA, where an amazing 20% of United States’ geriatric psychiatrists are trained, have edited this compact, but comprehensive little book. Twenty-one authors, all Pittsburgh-based, have contributed to 16 chapters and a short closing section on future directions.

By using small print, OUP has managed to pack an enormous amount of information into a book that will fit in a coat pocket. To put that in perspective, it is about half the size of the Guide to the Psychiatry of Old Age, which I co-wrote with three colleagues (Ames et al., 2010), and contains about twice as many words. Anyone over 40 years of age who does not yet own a pair of reading glasses may find that this is the book that causes them to buy a pair at last, but as far as content is concerned, it certainly represents value for money. The chapters cover Clinical Approach, Psychiatry and Medicine at the Geriatric Crossroads (!), Legal Issues, Aging Changes and Pharmacotherapy Principles, Delirium, Evaluation and Management of Cognitive Disorders and Dementia (two chapters), Anxiety Disorders, Late Life Depression: Evidence-Based Treatment, Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Depression (not that these are not evidence-based too, thanks in great measure to the assiduous work of Pittsburgh-based researchers), Cognitive Impairment and Personality Disorders, Late Life Psychosis, Late Life Sleep Disorders, Late Life Substance Use Disorders, Management of Chronic Pain, Geriatric Psychiatry in Long Term Care, and last of all, Psychosocial Factors, Health and Quality of Life. Not much has been left out!

Some chapters are quite copiously referenced, while others have few references. Each chapter has exercises and answers (upside down on a separate page) at its end.

This book would appear to be aimed at psychiatry trainees in the United States. Although some of its content will be of little interest to readers in other countries (e.g. the section on the psychotropic prescribing restrictions in long-term care imposed by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), there is much more that is of great relevance to any practitioner working with older patients with psychiatric or cognitive disorders anywhere in the world.

As a co-author of a shorter, cheaper text aimed at an international rather than US audience, any criticisms that I make of this work should be treated with suspicion. As Mandy Rice-Davies said of Lord Astor when in court during the Profumo affair, “he would, wouldn't he?” In fact I could find little to fault in this excellent text, other than the fact that the well-organized and very informative chapter on legal issues says nothing about judging the competence of individuals to own and operate firearms, although it (quite rightly) devotes one and a half pages to the topic of competence to drive safely (the Index does not list firearms, guns, or weapons). In the gun-sodden United States this is a matter that should at least be touched upon, and perhaps the editors may wish to consider this suggestion when compiling the second edition.

On a recent visit to Pittsburgh, I was hugely impressed with the city, its people, its dinosaur exhibits (the best anywhere I reckon), and the strong tradition of research, teaching, and clinical care in geriatric psychiatry exemplified at the Western Psychiatric Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This book adds to the already splendid record of geriatric psychiatrists in the home town of the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers. All who are working or training to work with old people affected by psychiatric and cognitive disorders (i.e. nearly every health professional in the world) should try to get their hands on this book and then read it from cover to cover. Whether they have been for a long time in the field or are relative novices, they will not fail to learn useful things that they did not know before.