Abstract
This study evaluated the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV for identifying generalized anxiety disorder in older medical patients. Participants were 191 of 281 patients screened for a clinical trial evaluating cognitive-behavior treatment, n = 110 with generalized anxiety disorder, 81 without. Participants completed the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV at pretreatment. Kappa coefficients estimated agreement with the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnosis. Receiver operating characteristic curves compared sensitivity and specificity of self-report measures. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (cutoff = 50) provided the strongest prediction of generalized anxiety disorder (sensitivity, 76%; specificity, 73%; 75% correctly classified; kappa =.49. Item 2 of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV demonstrated comparable accuracy. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV, and briefer versions of these measures may be useful in identifying late-life generalized anxiety disorder in medical settings.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 223-231 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2008 |
Keywords
- GAD-Q-IV
- Late-life anxiety
- PRIME-MD
- PSWQ
- Primary care psychology
- Sensitivity
- Specificity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology
- Psychiatry and Mental health