Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications

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Start date: 2008 × Subject: anxiety ×

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    Depression and anxiety in medically unwell older adults: prevalence and short-term course
    Bryant, C ; Jackson, H ; Ames, D (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2009-08)
    BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and short-term course of depression and anxiety in a sample of hospitalized, medically unwell older adults, using both a symptom measure and a diagnostic instrument. METHODS: One hundred participants were recruited from in-patients in a geriatric hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Anxiety and depression were assessed shortly after admission, and again two months later, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Geriatric Mental Status Schedule/ AGECAT diagnostic system. RESULTS: At Time 1, 60% of the sample exhibited anxiety symptoms at a sub-case level, while 16% had anxiety symptoms at a syndrome case level, whereas 48% of the participants had depression at syndrome level. The HADS and AGECAT were concordant with respect to anxiety for 78% of participants, but agreement was lower for depression; AGECAT identified a further 36 syndrome cases of depression not deemed depressed by the HADS. There was a significant decrease in overall rates of both depression and anxiety symptoms and syndromes from Time 1 to Time 2. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the findings of previous research with respect to the high prevalence of depression in physically unwell older adults, and extends knowledge about anxiety in this group. Symptoms of anxiety are even more common than symptoms of depression in this group, especially around the time of admission to hospital. Over a relatively short time period, there is a marked reduction in symptoms, but levels of anxiety and depression remain high.
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    Anxiety and depression in old age: challenges in recognition and diagnosis
    Bryant, C (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2010-06)
    Recent years have seen much debate about both the prevalence and the nature of anxiety and depression in older adults. On the one hand, some authors have suggested that older populations are characterized by surprisingly high levels of well-being and resilience, despite increasing losses and functional impairment (Staudinger and Fleeson, 1996) and that the prevalence of mental illness, with the exception of dementia, decreases in late life (Jorm, 2000). Others have suggested that this is a spurious finding resulting from the methodological problems in obtaining accurate data for older adults (Beekman et al., 1998, Krasucki et al., 1999; O'Connor, 2006), with categorical diagnostic systems, such as the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1992) frequently cited as aggravating these difficulties (Palmer et al., 1997).