Anxiety Disorders in the Elderly
Prevalence, profile and associated factors in an outpatient clinic for Geriatric Psychiatry in Porto Alegre, Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/2357-9641.2021.1.40528Keywords:
aged, geriatric psychiatry, anxiety disordersAbstract
Aims: to describe the prevalence of anxiety disorders and to evaluate the profile and associated factors in a sample of elderly people seen at the geriatric psychiatric outpatient clinic of a hospital in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Methods: this is a cross-sectional study that evaluated 69 elderly people diagnosed with anxiety disorders, seen at the geriatric psychiatric outpatient clinic, from 2014 to 2019.
Results: the prevalence of anxiety disorders was 21.9% and the average age 73.4 ± 8.7 years. There was a predominance of female individuals (81.2%), with 5 to 8 years of study (33.8%), married (47.7%) and residents of Porto Alegre (65.2%). Regarding clinical variables, the highest frequency of the elderly did not have a family history of illness or psychiatric hospitalization. Of the total, 92.6% reported having some clinical comorbidity, with cardiovascular diseases being the most frequent (69.8%). The main psychiatric drugs used were antidepressants (66.7%) and benzodiazepines (44.9%).
Conclusions: anxiety disorders are frequent among the elderly. Thus, further studies in the geriatric population and standardization of assessment tools are needed.
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