This issue of International Psychogeriatrics is the first in the last decade of this century. If progress in the field of psychogeriatrics during the 1980s is any indication, the 1990s should be all the more impressive. The 1980s witnessed a remarkable upsurge of psychogeriatric research and clinical interest in working with older patients. There was a geometric growth of scientific publications and a new infrastructure fostered by the growth and development of national and international professional societies emphasizing psychogeriatrics.