Clinical practice guidelines for geriatric anxiety disorders

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms seen in the elderly. Sub-syndromal anxiety is more prevalent than depression and cognitive disorders. The commonest anxiety disorder seen in the clinical practice is Generalised Anxiety Disorder(GAD)(7.3%) followed by phobias(3.1%), the panic disorder(1%) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD)(0.6%). Two relatively recent Indian studies have demonstrated an overall prevalence of anxiety disorders to be10.8% and 10.7%, respectively. Thus anxiety is quite common in the elder, among all the disorders of the geriatric population. These clinical practice guidelines intend to provide the practicing psychiatrists a ready reckoner to identify anxiety disorders, assess them, treat and manage side-effects of medications among elder individuals. The classificatory systems (Table 1) now have a difference as far as anxiety disorders are concerned, with DSM 5 introducing changes in the classification of anxiety disorders. Table 1 Classificatory Systems for Anxiety Disorders