Understanding and treating comorbid anxiety and depression in older adults

The rates of anxiety and mood disorders have been shown nationally and internationally to decrease in older adulthood (Henderson et al., 2000); however, the reason for this decrease is unknown. There is some evidence that these lower rates may reflect measurement problems due to invalid measurement tools or due to changes in the way that anxiety and depression present in older adults and therefore the true prevalence of these disorders may be underrepresented in epidemiological studies. To the contrary, there is also evidence that mental health generally improves in late life due to changes in attitudes and the emergence of a positivity bias which results in older adults seeking out more positive information in t heir lives, and reinterpreting negative information and situations in a more positive light (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, and Charles, 1999).