Prof. Dr. med. Gerhard W. Eschweiler
Prof. Dr. med. Gerhard W. Eschweiler studied medicine in Aachen and Tuebingen. He received his MD in 1987 from EKUT. After being awarded a post-doc-fellowship by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation in neurobiology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology from 1989 to 1991, he was a clinical resident in Neurology and Psychiatry until 1996. As a consultant he received a degree in behavioural psychotherapy in 2000 and became a clinical geriatrician. In 2004 he received his venia legendi in psychiatry and psychotherapy. In 2008 he became an associate professor for psychiatry and psychotherapy. Since 2005 he has been Managing Director of the Geriatric Centre at the University Hospital Tuebingen and a consultant in Gerontopsychiatry.
The Geriatric Center Tuebingen was founded in 1994 as a cooperation of five clinics (Medical University Clinic Dep. IV, Neurological University Clinic, University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Paul-Lechler-Hospital,Clinic for Tropical Diseases and the rehab hospital Sebastiansweiler). All of these institues possess geriatric teams which ensure the treatment of some 20.000 geriatric patients.
Since its foundation the Centre has run studies on physical exercise to prevent relapse of major depression and on biomarkers and early and neuropsychological features of Alzheimer disorders. A big prospective study on preclinical markers of Alzheimer and Parkinson Disease (TREND) was started in 2009 in collaboration with the Department of Neurology (Prof. Dr. D. Berg) and the Department of Psychiatry (Prof. Dr. A. Fallgatter). The second multidimensional assessment of more than 1000 older subjects started in March 2011.