FACULTY FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OLDER PEOPLE
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE21 - 22 JUNE 2021, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
Professor Brian Lawlor
Professor Brian Lawlor is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry and Deputy Executive Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin Consultant Psychiatrist at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin. He trained in Internal Medicine in Ireland and in Psychiatry in the Unites States at the University of Florida, Gainesville and the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda Maryland. He was Chief of Psychogeriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York before returning to Ireland in 1991 to take up his post at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin. His main clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, caregiver stress and on the impact of loneliness on the brain health and wellbeing of older people. As a psychiatrist, he has been involved in the care of older people with dementia and mental disorders for over 30 years. He was the founding director of the Memory Clinic at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin and Chair of the Irish National Dementia Awareness Campaign. He is currently a member of the World Dementia Council and the Irish Taskforce on Loneliness.
The lonely brain: how loneliness can affect your brain health
Professor Brian Lawlor will discuss “The impact of loneliness on brain health”. Brian is the Conolly Norman Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and a consultant psychiatrist at St. James’s Hospital. He is also the director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at Mercer’s Institute for Research on Ageing, St. James’s Hospital and Co-Director of Global Brain Health Institute. Brian Has over 200 research publications, his research interests are in the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, the neurobiology and treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia, and mental disorders in the elderly.
It has been known for almost 40 years that loneliness has a similar magnitude of risk to our health as cigarette smoking and probably a greater risk than obesity and hypertension. Loneliness can also impact on our brain health with poorer cognitive test performance and an increased vulnerability to dementia seen in people that are lonely. Moreover, COVID-19 has highlighted how social restrictions and loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in people living with dementia. In this session, I will discuss the complex and sometimes bidirectional relationship between loneliness and brain health, strategies for intervention and why tackling loneliness across the life span is important to maintaining our brain health.
FPOP 2021
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