Psychological treatment of late-life anxiety: an empirical review.
This study provides a meta-analytic review of nonpharmacological interventions for late-life anxiety, focusing on treatment efficacy. Included in the analysis are studies in which a comparison was made either to a control condition or to another treatment. A total of 15 outcome studies, published or reported between January 1975 and January 2002, were identified involving 495 participants (mean age exceeding 55.0 years and a grand mean of 69.5 years) and providing 20 separate treatment interventions. The analysis indicated that psychological interventions were reliably more effective than no treatment on self-rated and clinician-rated measures of anxiety, yielding an effect size of .55. Maintenance of treatment gains (a minimum of 6 months follow-up) was insufficiently reported across studies to allow for a reliable demonstration of an overall estimate of long-term efficacy. It is concluded that psychological interventions produce significant improvements, but the analyses must be qualified by data limitations in the research synthesis.
Nordhus
Inger Hilde
IH
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. inger.nordhus@psykp.uib.no
Pallesen
Ståle
S
D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*