A community based survey of older adults' preferences for treatment of anxiety.

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of anxiety in later life, there are no published studies on treatment preferences of older adults for anxiety problems. The current study utilized a survey method to inquire about treatment preferences in three age group cohorts (N = 383; young-, middle-, and oldest-old) recruited from the community, as opposed to primary care. Participants were asked to imagine that they were suffering from anxiety that had become severe enough to interfere with daily activities and were seeking mental health treatment. Each was asked to first indicate their preference for pharmacological, psychological, or combined treatment. Those who chose psychological or combined treatment were then asked to indicate which specific psychotherapeutic intervention they preferred from a list of six possible choices and to indicate their preference for setting and format of treatment. The sample generally preferred psychotherapy to medication or combined treatment for help with anxiety, delivered either in a primary care, specialty mental health, or university setting. Furthermore, specific treatment and format preferences varied by age group. Some of the current results (e.g., preference for psychotherapy over medication) run counter to those obtained from studies of depression treatment preference in samples of similar age (e.g., preference for medication over psychotherapy; Gum et al., 2006).