Age differences in symptoms of depression and anxiety: examining behavioral medicine outpatients. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • This study examined whether symptoms of depression and concomitant anxiety differed between older and younger medical outpatients referred to a behavioral medicine clinic. In a sample of 178 male veterans aged 21-83 years, older adults (> or = 60 years) reported lower overall depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and anxiety symptoms on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory than did younger adults ( < 60 years). Depressive symptoms were highly prevalent. Among older adults, 60.0% scored 10 or higher on BDI and 33.8% scored 16 or higher. Among younger adults, 70.8% scored 10 or higher on BDI, and 48.7% scored 16 or higher. The age difference in overall depressive symptoms was driven by cognitive-affective symptoms. While older adults had lower cognitive-affective symptoms than did younger adults, the two groups did not differ on somatic-performance symptoms. these results suggest the importance of assessing cognitive-affective depressive symptoms in both older and younger male medical outpatients.

publication date

  • April 1, 2003

Research

keywords

  • Anxiety
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Behavior Therapy
  • Depression
  • Depressive Disorder
  • Outpatients

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0037695199

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1023/a:1023030605390

PubMed ID

  • 12776382

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 26

issue

  • 2