[Cognitive-behavior therapy for late-life generalized anxiety disorder: literature overview]

Of the pervasive anxiety disorders diagnosed in late life, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most prevalent. However GAD often goes unrecognised and untreated because of different clinical presentation in the elderly. Anxiety is also substantially less well studied than other forms of geriatric psychopathology. This dearth of research may result from methodological difficulties. In this paper, the clinical features of GAD among older adults are described. Psychotropic medication is the most common treatment for GAD but is not good enough and psychological treatments for GAD in older adults that are highly preferable and safer have been advocated. One of them is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). In this article, literature investigating the potential usefulness of cognitive-behavioral treatments among older adults with well-diagnosed GAD is reviewed. Then, attention is given to enhancements to standard CBT, which take into account many factors and differences specific of the older cohort.