Health anxiety disorders in older adults: conceptualizing complex conditions in late life.

Health anxiety disorders (e.g., hypochondriasis) are prevalent but understudied in older adults. Existing research suggests that severe health anxiety has a late age of onset, perhaps because of comorbidity with physical health conditions that are more likely to occur with aging. Despite being under diagnosed in later life due to a lack of age-appropriate diagnostic criteria, significant positive associations with age suggest that health anxiety disorders are more prevalent in older than younger adults. Preliminary research also highlights the complexity of these disorders in older adults and the potential importance of medical morbidity as a risk factor. This review explores the complexities of health anxiety disorders in later life with a focus on understanding defining features, prevalence rates, correlates, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. We offer a theoretical model of the development of severe health anxiety among older adults to encourage further research on this important and under-studied topic.

Age, gender, and the underutilization of mental health services: the influence of help-seeking attitudes.

The objectives of this study were to explore age and gender differences in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and to examine whether attitudes negatively influence intentions to seek help among older adults and men, whose mental health needs are underserved. To achieve these objectives 206 community-dwelling adults completed questionnaires measuring help-seeking attitudes, psychiatric symptomatology, prior help-seeking, and intentions to seek help. Older age and female gender were associated with more positive help-seeking attitudes in this sample, although age and gender interacted with marital status and education, and had varying influences on different attitude components. Age and gender also influenced intentions to seek professional psychological help. Women exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from mental health professionals than men, likely due to their positive attitudes concerning psychological openness. Older adults exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from primary care physicians than younger adults, a finding that was not explained by age differences in attitudes. Results from this study suggest that negative attitudes related to psychological openness might contribute to men's underutilization of mental health services. Help-seeking attitudes do not appear to be a barrier to seeking professional help among older adults, although their intentions to visit primary care physicians might be. These findings suggest the need for education to improve men's help-seeking attitudes and to enhance older adults' willingness to seek specialty mental health services.

Do family physicians treat older patients with mental disorders differently from younger patients?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there are differences between family physicians' beliefs and treatment intentions regarding older patients with mental disorders and younger patients with similar disorders. Such differences might contribute to older adults' lower rates of mental health service use. DESIGN: Mailed survey. SETTING: Primary care practices in and around Kingston, Ont. PARTICIPANTS: Questionnaires were mailed to 294 general practitioners listed in the 42nd Annual Canadian Medical Directory. Of the 285 eligible physicians, 115 (40%) completed and returned questionnaires. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physicians' ratings of preparedness to identify and treat, likelihood of treating, likelihood of using each of five different treatment methods, likelihood of referral, preferences for six referral options, and treatment effectiveness with respect to hypothetical older and younger patients with panic disorder or dysthymia. RESULTS: Physicians reported being less prepared to identify and treat older patients than younger patients. In addition, physicians reported being significantly less likely to treat and to refer older patients than younger patients. Finally, physicians reported that both psychotherapy alone, and in combination with pharmacotherapy, were less effective for older patients than for younger patients. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to other possible reasons for older adults' low rates of mental health service use, this study suggests that family physicians' beliefs and treatment intentions could be contributing factors. Changes in medical education aimed at replacing inaccurate beliefs with accurate information regarding older patients might be one way to increase rates of use in this underserved age group, because family physicians play a key role in the mental health care of older adults.

Components necessary in a successful nurse practitioner-physician collaborative practice.

In recent years, collaborative practice has gained much attention from nurse practitioners in primary health care settings. This is because many nurse practitioners feel that nurse practitioners and physicians can complement each other's roles. Together, they can provide more comprehensive, quality primary health care than either profession can provide by itself. Nurse practitioners and physicians working together to care for a common group of patients may have varying degrees of collaboration in their practice. This article discusses some elements and components necessary to maximize the quality and extent of collaboration.