Anxiety disorders and age

Anxiety disorders are estimated to affect as many as 28.8% of people in the U.S. over their lifetime but there is still much about the long-term course of anxiety disorders that is unknown and little information about how people with anxiety disorders get on as they move from middle- to old-age. Researchers at Brown Medical School in the U.S. followed 453 people with panic disorder, social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder over fourteen years. They found that for all the disorders severity decreased over time but that the decline was more strongly associated with age in panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

Ramsawh, H. J. ... [et al] - Anxiety in middle adulthood: effects of age and time on the 14-year course of panic disorder, social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder Psychological Medicine April 2009, 39(4), 615-624