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The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI): the state scale in detecting mental disorders in geriatric patients
- Authors:
- KVAAL Kari, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20(7), July 2005, pp.629-634.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In geriatric psychiatry assessment scales are often used in clinical praxis in the diagnostic work-up of mental disorders. This study aimed to assess whether the state part of the STAI is useful as a case-finding instrument of mental disorders. Data came from 70 non demented geriatric in-patients in stable clinical condition. Mean age was 83.3 years (range 64-96), and 74.3% were women. The 20-item STAI state instrument was used to measure current anxiety symptoms. Without knowledge of the score on STAI state a psychiatrist examined all patients and set diagnosis according to DSM-IV-TR criteria, but hierarchical rules were not used. Sensitivity, specificity, Likelihood ratio and accuracy were calculated for different cut-points of the mean sumscore on the STAI state. The mean STAI sumscore in this group was 56.3 compared with 39.2 in the 59 patients without any psychiatric diagnosis. The authors concluded that the STAI state scale is a useful instrument for detecting a variety of mental disorders in older people and recommend that further studies should be carried out in different populations.