New Intervention for Geriatric Anxiety in Primary Care

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by candidate): The overall goal of this five-year training award is to develop Julie Wetherell, Ph.D.'s expertise in the creation and adaptation of effective psychological interventions for older adults in the primary care setting. The career development plan builds on Dr. Wetherell's research training and background in clinical geropsychology. Dr. Wetherell is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Geriatric Psychiatry at UCSD, and she plans to take a faculty position in UCSD's Department of Psychiatry starting October, 2002. She has 13 articles and chapters published or in press, has made 15 presentations at regional and national scientific meetings, and received an individual NRSA grant from NIMH to fund her predoctoral research and training. The goals of the proposed training plan are as follows: 1) to develop Dr. Wetherell's expertise in research methodology, ethics, design, and statistical analysis of treatment outcome studies with older adults; 2) to increase her understanding of anxiety in late life in order to develop optimally effective interventions for these disorders; 3) to establish partnerships with primary care physicians and other health care personnel in order to !earn more about relevant issues in this setting and to develop collaborative projects; 4) to learn strategies for improving recruitment and retention of diverse older participants in clinical research; 5) to become proficient in functional assessment with older adults; 6) to become familiar with techniques for measuring the cost-effectiveness of mental health services; and 7) to build general skills necessary to develop an academic career, including teaching, supervising, and mentoring, presenting and publishing, writing grants, and developing collaborative networks. The plan includes structured coursework and consultation with experts in the fields of geriatric mental health interventions, anxiety disorders, psychological services in primary care, functional assessment, and evaluation of cost-effectiveness. Dr. Wetherell's firsthand research training will involve the development and randomized trial of a new intervention for geriatric anxiety in primary care. The proposed intervention, containing the elements of relaxation training, problem-solving, stimulus control, and life review, will be compared to a treatment as usual condition among a group of 52 primary care patients over the age of 60 with generalized anxiety disorder or clinically significant anxiety symptoms.