New Intervention for Geriatric Anxiety in Primary Care

描述（由候选人提供）：这个为期五年的培训奖项的总体目标是发展朱莉·韦瑟雷尔博士在初级保健环境中为老年人创造和适应有效心理干预方面的专业知识。职业发展计划建立在Wetherell博士的研究培训和临床老年心理学背景之上。Wetherell博士目前是加州大学圣地亚哥分校老年精神病学博士后，她计划从2002年10月开始在加州大学圣地亚哥分校精神病学系担任教职。她已经发表或出版了13篇文章和章节，在地区和国家科学会议上做了15次演讲，并获得了NIMH的nssa个人资助，用于资助她的博士前研究和培训。拟议培训计划的目标如下：1)培养Wetherell博士在老年人治疗结果研究的研究方法、伦理、设计和统计分析方面的专业知识；2)增加她对晚年焦虑的理解，以便为这些障碍制定最有效的干预措施；3)与初级保健医生和其他卫生保健人员建立伙伴关系，以便！在此背景下了解更多相关问题并开发合作项目；4)学习提高临床研究中不同年龄参与者的招募和保留策略；5)熟练掌握老年人的功能评估；6)熟悉衡量精神卫生服务成本效益的技术；7)建立发展学术生涯所需的一般技能，包括教学、监督和指导、演讲和出版、撰写赠款和发展合作网络。该计划包括在老年人心理健康干预、焦虑症、初级保健中的心理服务、功能评估和成本效益评估等领域的结构化课程和专家咨询。Wetherell博士的第一手研究培训将涉及在初级保健中开发和随机试验一种针对老年焦虑症的新干预措施。建议的干预措施包括放松训练、解决问题、刺激控制和生活回顾，将在52名60岁以上的广泛性焦虑障碍或临床显著焦虑症状的初级保健患者中与常规治疗进行比较。

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.