Treatment of Traumatic Stress in Older Adults: Advances to Celebrate And a Request for More and Better

While the majority of older adult trauma survivors do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a significant minority do, and some may have sub-threshold PTSD 1 or other trauma-related disorders, including depression and anxiety. 2 Unless treated, older trauma survivors seem to experience a relatively stable course of PTSD across the lifespan, with some waxing and waning of symptoms. Older adults with PTSD are at risk of not receiving timely and appropriate mental health treatment, indicating targeted outreach could be helpful in increasing service use and improving care.

Source: The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry - September 24, 2020 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Joan M. Cook Tags: Invited Perspective Source Type: research