Late-Life Mental Health Disorders. Data from a Population-Based Study

Although highly prevalent, so far mental disorder in late life has deserved little research interest, especially at the population level. Our study provides a reliable picture of the distribution of mental health disorders in a sample of 462 Italian older people aged 75+ (women 53.2%) from a population-based study, the Faenza Project. In our sample, one mental disorder is diagnosable in one out of 3 elderly. The most prevalent diagnoses were General Anxiety Disorder (20.7%) and Dementia (19.0%), with female significantly more affected than male. Also Cognitive Impairment No Dementia was highly prevalent with 13.9% of the sample showing these symptoms. The most frequent overlap was between GAD and Major Depressive Episode. The risk of suicide is very high among older, in our sample 7.3% had suicidal thoughts. In spite of that approximately 70% of older adults with mood and anxiety disorders did not use services. There is a need to improve awareness about mental disorders in late- life, both in the community and among health care professionals to find