Faculty Articles
Behavioral Assessment and Treatment of Anxiety in the Elderly
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Clinical Psychology Review
ISSN
0272-7358
Publication Date
4-14-1992
Abstract
The assessment of anxiety in the elderly and its behavioral treatment are reviewed in this paper. Despite prevalence rates of anxiety ranging from 10% to 20%, and disproportionately high rates of minor tranquilizer usage in the elderly, the area has been understudied by gerontology researchers. With one exception, the assessment strategies employed with the elderly were not developed for that population. Moreover, existing self-report and interview-administered instruments initially developed for younger adults have not been evaluated psychometrically with older populations in terms of norms, internal consistency, reliability, factorial structure, and validity. In addition, the varying etiological factors accounting for nearly identical symptomatic presentation in the elderly have received insufficient investigatory attention. Similarly, although there are a few clinical and research studies evaluating the behavioral treatment of anxiety in the elderly, the literature is only in its nascent stages in the context of the large array of behavioral techniques applied to older anxious individuals. For both assessment and treatment of geriatric anxiety, initial studies conducted in the last decade offer promise for the future, but there are large gaps in the current literature. Therefore, we have presented a potential blueprint for further investigative endeavors.
DOI
10.1016/0272-7358(92)90135-U
Volume
12
Issue
6
First Page
619
Last Page
640
NSUWorks Citation
Hersen, M.,
Van Hasselt, V. B.
(1992). Behavioral Assessment and Treatment of Anxiety in the Elderly. Clinical Psychology Review, 12(6), 619-640.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/268
