See your healthcare provider if you worry a lot, have anxiety that is making life difficult or is causing sleep problems, or anxiety that has gotten worse over time 

The healthcare professional will:

• Ask questions about symptoms and evaluate a person’s mental status, mood, and thought process, and use of any substances, such as alcohol or other drugs.
• Consider a person’s social and support systems.
• Consider any problems with daily activities.
• Review medical history and consider whether the anxiety is related to a medical condition, medication, or substance.
• Review all medications and supplements.
• Check whether the anxiety may be hiding depression.
• Do psychological testing or refer a person to a mental health specialist.
• Order laboratory tests to check for common medical conditions such as kidney disease, thyroid problems, or anemia, or drug misuse.

Culture and race are important to consider when diagnosing and treating anxiety because there are differences among groups. For example, older Black Americans and Latinx are more comfortable talking to their primary care providers about their mental health than older White Americans.

Regardless of background, assessment of older adults’ mental health problems is more complex because this group tends to resist evaluation. This is due to the shame they can feel about mental illness.

Last Updated February 2023