The association of late-life depression and anxiety with physical disability - A review of the literature and prospectus for future research

Depression and anxiety disorders are associated with excess disability. The authors searched the recent geriatric literature for studies associating l ate-life depression or anxiety with physical disability Studies showed depr ession in old age to be an independent risk factor for disability; similarl y, disability was found to be a risk factor for depression. Anxiety, in lat e life was also found to be a risk factor for disability,, although not nec essarily independently of depression. Increased disability, due to depressi on is only partly! explained by differences in socioeconomic measures, medi cal conditions, and cognition. Physical disability, improves with treatment for depression; comparable studies hare not been done for anxiety! The aut hors discuss how these findings inform current concepts of physical disabil ity and discuss the implications for future intervention studies of late-li fe depression and anxiety disorders.