Treatment of Late-Life Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, and Substance Abuse

Working with older adults no longer means working exclusively with frail or disabled people. Older adults are healthier now on average than in decades past, but they still require specialized care. Mental health providers are seeing a growing number of older patients in their practice and may have little experience in the best methods for working with them.

To fill that gap, Patricia A. Areán assembled this volume of best practices in treating mental disorders in late life. It includes an overview of geropsychology and the training resources available to help clinicians develop the competencies they need to work with older adults.

Chapters focus on evidence-based treatments for late-life depression, anxiety, trauma, and substance abuse disorders, including cognitive behavioral therapy, problem solving treatment, behavioral activation, interpersonal therapy, relaxation training, exposure therapy, substance abuse relapse prevention, and motivational interviewing. Detailed case examples in each chapter illustrate the interventions in action.

Although mental disorders are not as common in later life as they are in younger populations, they can be disabling and costly. With the accumulation of evidence over the past twenty-five years, assumptions about whether older adults can benefit from psychotherapy have changed greatly. Not only is psychotherapy a more effective treatment option than medication for many older adults, the effects are as good as those seen in younger adults.

This book will help mental health providers take advantage of the latest research and be more effective in their work with older adults.

Contributors

Introduction
Patricia A. Areán

1. Building Competencies in Professional Geropsychology: Guidelines, Training Model, and Strategies for Professional Development
   Sara Honn Qualls
2. Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Behavioral Activation for Late-Life Depression
   Elizabeth A. DiNapoli, Michael LaRocca, and Forrest Scogin
3. Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Late-Life Depression
   Patrick Raue and Patricia A. Areán
4. Problem Solving Treatment for Late-Life Depression
   Rebecca M. Crabb and Patricia A. Areán
5. Evidence-Based Treatment for Late-Life Generalized Anxiety Disorder
   Catherine Ayers, Katrina Strickland, and Julie Loebach Wetherell
6. Exposure Therapy for Late-Life Trauma
   Joan M. Cook and Stephanie Dinnen
7. Brief Alcohol and Drug Interventions and Motivational Interviewing for Older Adults
   Derek D. Satre and Amy Leibowitz
8. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for Substance Abuse in Older Populations
   Nancy H. Liu and Jason M. Satterfield
9. Relapse Prevention Treatment for Substance Abuse Disorders in Older Adults
   Lawrence Schonfeld and Nicole S. MacFarland

Appendix. Resources for Clinicians

Index

About the Editor

Patricia A. Areán, PhD, is a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and a licensed clinical psychologist.

Dr. Areán is an international expert on the effectiveness of behavioral interventions for mood disorders, in particular on adapting these interventions for a variety of health and mental health settings (primary care medicine, assisted living, social service, mental health) and more recently on mobile health applications.

Since 1994, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on these topics and has been funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute on Aging,National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the Hartford Foundation. She is currently funded by NIMH to study the effectiveness of brain games and mobile health apps on mood.

Dr. Areán's work has won national recognition, resulting in an early career award from APA, a midcareer Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work on disseminating evidence-based practices, and the Award for Achievements in Diversity in Mental Health from the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Areán currently leads an interdisciplinary research team of researchers from diverse backgrounds, including social work, nursing, psychiatry, family and general medicine, medical sociology, and clinical psychology.

I recommend this book as a state-of-the-art resource for psychologists in training and practitioners who treat older adults. The book could easily be a primary text within a clinical psychology course at the graduate level or adopted for seminar training in doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs. In addition to the hard facts of research-to-practice translation, the book affirms a sensitivity and humility that mental health professionals must possess and demonstrate for improving the quality of life of elderly individuals.
—New England Psychologist

This book provides an overview of various therapeutic approaches for the treatment of older adults with psychiatric disorders. It is easy to read and written by experts in the field. The case examples are a great learning tool, showing how theory is translated into practice. It is an excellent book for clinicians working with elderly clients.
—Doody’s Review Service

This book offers a practical, up-to-date set of tools that can be used not only be those in the mental health disciplines to treat older patients, but also by ancillary disciplines who will need to be recruited to fill the anticipated gap in treatment community.
—PsycCRITIQUES