Promoting Healthy Aging Through Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in Older Adults

Depression, anxiety, and substance-related and addictive disorders undermine healthy aging. Despite the stigma associated with being older, healthy aging has recently been the focus of research and a topic of media coverage. Interventions intended to assist with healthy aging are geared toward modifying risk factors for medical and psychiatric illnesses. These include increasing the amount of physical activity, decreasing alcohol consumption, maintaining social connections, and smoking cessation. The differential diagnosis of depression in older adults includes medical illnesses, dementia, and psychiatric problems such as bereavement and the behavioral and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Depression symptoms in older adults may go unrecognized due to the false idea that developing depression symptoms represents normal aging. Unlike depression, anxiety disorders in older adults may not appear the same as in younger cohorts. Anxious older adults are more likely to report somatic complaints rather than psychological distress.