The utility of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (GADSS) with older adults in primary care.

BACKGROUND The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (GADSS) is an interview rating scale designed specifically for assessing symptom severity of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which has demonstrated positive psychometric data in a sample of adult primary care patients with GAD and panic disorder. However, the psychometric properties of the GADSS have not been evaluated for older adults. METHODS This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the GADSS, administered via telephone, with a sample of older primary care patients (n=223) referred for treatment of worry and/or anxiety. RESULTS The GADSS demonstrated adequate internal consistency, strong inter-rater reliability, adequate convergent validity, poor diagnostic accuracy, and mixed discriminant validity. CONCLUSIONS Results provide mixed preliminary support for use of the GADSS with older adults.