Cross-national comparison of prevalence of symptoms of neurotic disorders in older people in two community samples.

The objective of this research was to compare the prevalence of symptoms characteristic of neurotic disorders in two different cultural settings. The design was two random community samples in Liverpool (United Kingdom) and Zaragoza (Spain), of 1070 and 1080 people aged 65 and over. The main outcome measures were the rating of symptoms on the Geriatric Mental State and syndrome levels using the Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy. The results showed substantial differences between the two cities in the symptomatic pattern of phobias, but both the symptomatic and syndrome presentation of obsessional, hypochrondriacal and anxiety disorders were much more similar.