Commentary for special edition on anxiety

Abstract

This impressive collection of papers encompasses key themes at the heart of current research on anxiety in older adults, confirming that the study of anxiety in older adults has, indeed come of age (Beekman et al., 2015). The papers range from those providing in-depth exploration of an aspect of anxiety, such as the review by Hughes and colleagues of the concepts encompassed by the term “fear of falling” (Hughes et al., 2015), to those dealing with the assessment of anxiety, such as those by Mueller (Mueller et al., 2015) and Nitschke Massena (Nitschke Massena et al., 2015), while yet others address important issues in relation to anxiety treatment. This demonstrates the progress that has been made in recent years in our understanding and treatment of this significant group of disorders. I took a particular interest in reading these papers from the perspective of a clinician, and in this commentary will focus on themes and findings that I found to be of particular relevance to the mental health practitioner.