Abstracts of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society

Venue: Tokyo International Forum 
Date: 16–17 June 2005 President: Professor Heii Arai (Juntendo University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry) The 20th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society was held in Tokyo. The meeting was co‐organized with four other meetings related to gerontology. The program included one special lecture, four educational lectures, three symposiums, 74 oral presentations, and 40 poster presentations. As this meeting was co‐organized with other meetings related to gerontology, participants had good opportunities to access information in the important related fields. In the special lecture entitled ‘The etiology and pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease’, Professor Peter St George‐Hyslop presented recent findings in Alzheimer disease research on the pathological pathways, including production of amyloid beta and regulation of gamma secretase activity. It was shown that rapid progress was being made in basic research on Alzheimer's disease and this had an impact on the audience. Symposium I, ‘Alcoholism and its related cognitive impairment dementia’, was chaired by Professor Kenji Kosaka and Professor Haruo Kashima; Symposium II, ‘Alzheimer's disease: recent clinical challenges’ was chaired by Professor Masaaki Matsushita and Professor Masatoshi Takeda; and Symposium III, ‘Long‐term care insurance in the psychogeriatric field’ was chaired by Professor Akira Honma and Dr Yumiko Arai. All three symposiums were fruitful, with many active members being involved in exciting discussions. The next annual meeting will be held on 30 June–1 July 2006 in Tokyo, and presided by Professor Hiroo Kasahara. The 2007 meeting will be presided by Professor Yoshio Morita and will be co‐organized with the 13th Congress of the International Psychogeriatric Association, chaired by Professor Masatoshi Takeda.