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Biography
- Professor of Psychiatry in Medicine, Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College 2015 -
- Professor of Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College 2008 -
- Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College 1989 - 2008
Personality Disorders in the Aging
The overall objectives of Dr. Abrams' research are to investigate personality disorders and a broad range of personality dimensions in the elderly. Studies are concerned with the clinical significance of personality disorders and traits among geriatric depressives as possible predictors of relapse and recurrence of depression, and among both geriatric depressives and normal elderly subjects as predictors of institutionalization, quality of life, and disability. Comparisons with young adult subjects are used to examine the interactions of personality, affect, and aging.
This work is supported by NIMH Academic Career Award K07 MH01025. The specific aims of the project are to:
- Assess lifetime personality functioning in geriatric depressives and examine its relationship to the course and outcome of the affective disorder.
- Compare the personality functioning of elderly patients recovered from major depression and normal geriatric controls.
- Investigate the capacity of personality traits and disorders in geriatric subjects to predict the disability and quality of life associated with medical and psychiatric illness.
Publications
Selected publications
- The Interview for Decisional Abilities (IDA): a tool to assess the decisional capacity of abused and neglected older adults. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. 2019
- The Abdication of King Edward VIII: A study of estrangement between an adult son and elderly mother. Medical Humanities. 2018
- Vascular depression and the death of Queen Victoria. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2018
- The Abrams geriatric self-neglect scale: Introduction, validation and psychometric properties. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2017
- The Indirect Costs of Late-Life Depression in the United States: A Literature Review and Perspective. 2016
- A training program to enhance recognition of depression in nursing homes, assisted living, and other long-term care settings: Description and evaluation. Gerontology and Geriatrics Education. 2016
Background
Education and Training
- M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine 1976
- B.S., University of California, Berkeley 1972
