ABSTRACT
The present study examined age differences in the identification of anxiety and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 374 adults, ages 18 to 93. Older adults were less accurate and more likely than younger adults to label symptoms as neither anxiety nor depression. Both older and younger adults were more accurate in their classification of depressive than anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that additional efforts are needed to educate the general public, particularly older adults, about anxiety and its symptoms.
Subject(s)
Aged/psychology , Anxiety Disorders/diagnosis , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Surveys and Questionnaires , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Anxiety Disorders/psychology , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Female , Geriatric Assessment , Humans , Logistic Models , Male , Middle Aged , Personality Inventory , Principal Component Analysis , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/statistics & numerical data , Psychometrics , Risk Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
The authors analyzed data on delusions and associated neuropsychiatric symptoms in 1,229 consecutive patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) at nine university-based State of California Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers. Thirty-four percent of these patients had delusions. The delusional patients were older, more likely to be female, and had a later onset of AD than the nondelusional group. Compared to the nondelusional patients, the delusional patients also had more severe global cognitive impairment, along with a higher prevalence of hallucinations, agitation, depression, and gait disturbance, as well as family and marital difficulties and self-care problems.
