"Over the last four weeks, have you felt nervous, anxious, or on edge?" A group of 279 patients – aged 19-87 -- were asked this question, and their answers may surprise you.
Anxiety is a common, normal, and often useful response to life's challenges and dangers. But in people who suffer from an anxiety disorder, anxiety levels spin out of control, causing psychological and physical symptoms that interfere with normal functioning, appear even in the absence of obvious external stressors, or are clearly excessive in the face of the stressors.
Anxiety is a common problem for older people -- far more prevalent than depressive disorders -- affecting 10 -24% of the elderly. But do younger and older people experience anxiety in the same way? Not always, according to a study of 279 patients, age 19–87, recruited from an outpatient primary care clinic.
Participants were asked to rate their health on a scale from 0 (poor) to 10 (excellent) and to complete three anxiety questionnaires as well as answer the question, “Over the last four weeks, have you felt nervous, anxious, or on edge?” The majority of participants were white, well educated, and married. Women comprised two-thirds of the group. Most rated their health as relatively good.
Of the 279, 145 reported symptoms of anxiety. When the results were sorted by age, older people with anxiety had the same somatic symptoms (bodily symptoms such as numbness, tingling, or feeling hot) and affective symptoms (psychological responses such as feeling nervous or irritable) but reported fewer cognitive symptoms (less worry) than younger adults with anxiety, regardless of race, gender, education, and health status.
When screening for anxiety disorders in older adults, doctors and patients should pay more attention to somatic and affective symptoms rather than cognitive symptoms such as worrying, given that worry plays a less prominent role in anxiety disorders in older adults. This data was reported in the journal Aging and Mental Health (Volume 10, page 298).
