ABSTRACT
With the “graying” of America (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1999), the number of older adults referred for psychological evaluations will only continue to expand. Specialists in geropsychology will be called upon to differentiate concerns of older adults about normal aging from symptoms reflective of incipient cognitive impairments or late onset psychiatric diagnoses. Such challenges are further compounded when individuals with known neurological disease or injury present for clinical evaluation and treatment planning. In the present chapter, the frequency of major depression, anxiety disorders, and psychosis in older adults will be reviewed and contrasted with the incidence of these psychiatric disorders in older adults with acquired neurological impairments. Traditional psychological interventions in older adults will be summarized, with modifications of these approaches to enhance treatment effectiveness for older adults with co-occurring psychiatric and neurological disorders suggested. This chapter will not focus on issues related to medication management of psychiatric disorders nor on substance abuse disorders in older adults since those topics are covered in detail in Chapters 15 and 16 of this volume.
