Social Psychiatry, Vol. 47 No. 3, 2019.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.24869/spsih.2019.283
Anxiety Disorders in Elderly
Alma Mihaljević-Peleš
; Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Department for Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
Marina Šagud
; Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Department for Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The proportion of older people is continuously increasing in the total population. A higher proportion of the elderly contribute to the change in morbidity characteristics of this period of life. Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms accompanying the elderly and is a consequence of diminished physical and cognitive abilities. Subsyndromal anxiety is more common among the elderly than depression and cognitive impairment. In the elderly, therefore, there exists a “concern” that results from impaired abilities and should not always be diagnosed as a disorder. True anxiety and/or anxiety disorder significantly impairs a person’s functionality and requires treatment. Anxiety and anxiety disorders, as expected, have some special characteristics that we will not find in the adult psychiatric population. Accordingly, it is necessary to recognize these particular characteristics of anxiety in the elderly in order for them to be diagnosed with more attention and to ensure timely treatment. The procedure and treatment of geriatric anxiety also has its own special characteristics and rules. It is a general recommendation that the use of psychopharmacological agents in the elderly is not lifelong. Tapering from medication should last for several months in order to avoid the relapse of anxiety symptoms.
Keywords
Anxiety Disorders; Diagnostics; Treatment; Older People
Hrčak ID:
232310
URI
Publication date:
12.11.2019.
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