, Gatz, Margaret, & Craske, Michelle. Treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in older adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 31-39. .
The article I chose to read is titled "Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Older Adults" and it was written by Julie Wetherell, Margaret Gatz, and Michelle G. Craske for the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The authors of the article thought that medical drugs were prescribed all together too often among older adults claiming Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The authors disagree with the prescription of drugs such as benzodiazepines for GAD because of its side effects such as tolerance, withdrawal, accidents, cognitive impairment, drug interactions, and toxicity. They continued discussing the fact that not many studies have been done on anxiety in older adults and what can be done for them. So, Wetherell, Gatz, and Craske did a study on older people who had a principle diagnosis of GAD who were above the age of fifty-five. People in the study also could not have a history of mania or psychosis, cognitive impairment , current participation in psychotherapy, alchohol or other substance abuse among a few other things. Their goal was to see the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) instead of medications to treat GAD. Their hypothesis was that participants in CBT would show greater improvement on measures of anxiety, worry, depression, and quality of life and that they would maintain these improvements better than those patients who only received prescription treatment. The article goes on to discuss the methods and procedures. The authors discussed their population and their study and how they went about getting these groups of people together. They named the sessions "worry reduction classes" because they thought that the older adults whom they were targeting would resist services labeled as mental health treatment.