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Forum GGz Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Acta Psychiatr Scand 2008;117:403–11.
Editor’s note: The information in this article supports the intuitively attractive conclusion that older people with anxiety disorders become less anxious if they have a comforting person to talk to. The authors propose that a new and currently fashionable form of psychotherapy, “cognitive behavioral therapy,” is an effective form of treatment for anxiety disorders in later life. The researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials involving patients aged >60 years with anxiety disorders. There was a significantly greater reduction in anxiety symptoms following CBT compared with a waiting-list control condition (standardized mean difference [SMD] = –0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI] –0.84 to –0.04; p=0.03) or an active control condition (SMD = –0.51, 95% CI –0.81 to –0.21; p<0.001), in which non-specific effects in patients were controlled. Decades ago, extensive studies comparing the efficacy of different types of psychotherapy indicated that the critical variable was the enthusiasm of the therapist rather than the type of therapeutic approach he or she was advocating. Further investigations are needed to determine whether CBT is better than other forms of “talking therapy” for older people with anxiety disorders.