Senior Anxiety

By Jan Shapan ::

It is about time we toss out an old, worn out rule of thumb. That rule held that anxiety disorders declined with age. The theory was that seniors would report mental issues less frequently due to their focus on physical pain and problems.

This assumption may be somewhat valid but does it mean we should simply ignore seniors that complain of anxiety issues?

This is how we sweep problems under the rug. Rather than face the real possibility that seniors do actually struggle with anxiety more with age, we make unfounded assumptions and then pay little or no attention to the problem.

Unfortunately the growing senior population has forced our health care professionals to concede that aging and debilitating anxieties go together. And many seniors contending with anxiety disorders have fought with them for years. According to the American Geriatrics Society Foundation, anxiety becomes more common as we get older, because medical, psychological, and social problems tend to build up.

Until now, mental health professions lacked any standardized scales or measurements that would accurately and swiftly measure anxiety within a patient. And a tool was needed that could effectively be used in day to day clinical practices dealing with mental health problems.

Studies suggest that only 11% of psychiatrists use any type of standardized measurement tools to evaluate results when dealing with depression or anxiety disorders so a significant opportunity for improvement exists.

With this in mind, Mark Zimmerman, MD, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital, and his colleagues developed the Clinically Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale (CUXOS).

Using the CUXOS scale, patients were able to complete the test in less than two minutes and the clinician scored the test in less than 15 seconds. The scale has been found to reflect high internal consistency and test-retest reliability and correlates well with other known self-report measures.

Zimmerman says, “We believe that the use of standardized scales should be the standard of care and routinely used to measure outcome when treating psychiatric disorders. Only in this way can we ensure that we are having an impact on our patients.”

Researchers acknowledge the need to question any new self report scale since there is no shortage of similar scales available now, but the CUXOS distinguishes itself in several respects and is intended as a general measure of the severity of psychic and somatic anxiety.

The study was based on work in the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) Project, for which Zimmerman is the principal investigator. It is a unique integration of research quality diagnostic methods into a community-based outpatient practice affiliated with an academic medical center.
Along with Zimmerman, other researchers in the study are Iwona Chelminski, PhD, Diane Young, PhD, and Kristy Dalrymple, PhD, all of Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School.

Communication with aging parents, patients and senior friends is the best way to identify life changes that often drive escalating levels of anxiety. Pay attention to the following key indicators:

● Sudden changes in daily routines and activities;
● Unusual levels of worry that is out of proportion to the circumstances;
● Sudden changes in moods or behavior due to medication;
● Changes in outlook on life or loss of interests;
The results to date for the CUXOS scale gives hope for many seniors suffering with anxiety. Faster and more accurate measurements of anxiety will reduce long term health care costs and provide relief to care givers. But most importantly, seniors that suffer anxiety disorders will enjoy life more.

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About the Author

Janet Shapan, has been a publisher, writer and media designer in the special interest magazine and TV production business for over 25 years. A Boomer, her passion is identifying and sharing current innovations in health, wellness and other lifestyle categories of interest to Seniors. Give me your comments and suggests at http://For-Seniors.org