The "Aging Males' Symptoms" (AMS) Scale assesses depression and anxiety

Emotional distress may be associated with severe aging symptoms. This study aimed to investigate aging symptoms in male psychiatric outpatients and their relationship with anxiety and depression.

About 176 male psychiatric outpatients aged 40-80 years were enrolled into this single-center cross-sectional study, and completed self-reported questionnaires including "Aging Males' Symptoms" (AMS) scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Age was correlated with less anxiety (r = -0.23), less psychological (r = -0.16) and more sexual symptoms (r = 0.31). After controlling demographic variables, the partial correlation coefficients of HADS and AMS scores ranged from 0.30 to 0.73. Four groups were defined by HADS: control (C; n = 103), depression (D; n = 18), anxiety (A; n = 26) and mixed anxiety and depression (M; n = 29). The M group had the most severe aging symptoms, and the C group the least. The A group had more psychological and less sexual symptoms than the D group. "Impaired sexual potency" was the only aging symptom in males not significantly different among the four groups.

Anxiety and depression was associated with more severe aging symptoms in male psychiatric outpatients. Sexual dysfunction could be regarded as the core manifestation to differentiate aging symptoms from syndromal emotional distress.