DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY 26:E10–E15 (2009) Research Article THE UTILITY OF THE GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER SEVERITY SCALE (GADSS) WITH OLDER ADULTS IN PRIMARY CARE

interview rating scale designed specifically for assessing symptom severity of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which has demonstrated positive psycho-metric 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 (n5223) 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 prelimin-ary support for use of the GADSS with older adults. Depression and Anxiet