Incidence trend of mental illness in African American elderly individuals

Release date: 2014-08-15

Recently, in a literature review published in the international journal Clinical Gerontologist, researchers from abroad have shown that African-Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety and dementia, in this article, The authors analyzed the mental health of a growing group of older African Americans.

Because of the many differences, mental health assessments and therapies for older African Americans tend to be more complex. In this study, the researchers focused on three common mental disorders in the United States over the age of 55: depression, Anxiety and dementia have been studied and analyzed, and previous studies have shown that African Americans are increasingly concerned about depression and anxiety.

Due to cultural prejudice, the tools for diagnosing dementia still cause misunderstandings from the cultural concepts and symptom descriptions of the surrounding people. For African American elderly individuals, the inconsistency of mental health therapy is often due to its lack of availability. Mental health resources and distrust of mental health services have become more serious.

Finally, the researchers said that in response to the current inconsistency in mental health care and the growing number of older people in African-American elderly individuals, researchers must develop new assessment strategies and new treatments for mental illness to make these elderly individuals benefit from it.

Source: Bio Valley