High Occurrence of Mood and Anxiety Disorders Among Older Adults

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Abstract
Knowledge of the prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders and coexisting mood-anxiety disorder in older community-dwelling adults is important; these are hidden and undertreated but treatable disorders associated with poor health outcomes.1-5 Such information is imperative, especially considering the current and projected growth of the older segment of the population. Understanding these distributions has important implications for intervention and prevention strategies in geriatric research and care. However, epidemiological studies of psychiatric disorders in elderly Americans are limited. The majority of research has involved small studies, generally in clinical settings, which limits generalizability to the population.6-8 The small number of community-based studies have used symptom scales as opposed to structured clinical interviews to assess prevalence of disorders.9,10