12:00a.m. 10th December 2007

| Roxanne McCarty-O'Kane

It's no wonder greeting card companies make an absolute fortune from getting old jokes.

It appears the elderly have a lighter take on life than their baby-boomer counterparts.

A survey of 5000 people over 45 has found baby boomers have much higher rates of psychiatric and anxiety disorders than those in their twilight years.

The University of NSW survey found one in seven middle aged people (45 to 65) have a mental health problem compared to one in 16 over 65.

Elderly participants also were less likely to report having seen a doctor for a mental health problem in the past 12 months.

University of NSW psychiatrist and co-investigator Dr Julian Trollor said the statistics uncovered a new and very positive view of ageing. “The general perception out there is that disease and burden is what you’ve got to look forward to as you age, but we can be much more positive than that,” Dr Trollor said.

Dr Trollor and colleague Dr Tracy Anderson analysed national mental health statistics collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, comparing 3111 middle-aged people with 1792 over 65.

It is the first ever population-based comparison of mental disorder rates between the two generations.

“The overall impression from the survey is that elderly people are more psychologically healthy than their younger counterparts and quite significantly so,” Dr Trollor said.

He said it appeared people become psychologically “immunised” to hardship through their lifetime, making them more resilient with age.

“With tough times repeated through life you learn to cope with adversity, which may explain why this is a mentally healthier and more robust group.”

Independent Retirees association member Helen Saba said the statistics were an accurate reflection of what she had seen in the community.

“Much of what is expressed I feel is true, our generation has moved on from retirement to active ageing and being very much involved in the community,” Ms Saba said.

“I personally find that being involved in the community means I don’t have time to worry about anxiety, you just sail through without thinking,” she said. “It’s everyday life and it’s just as if you are 20 to 30 years younger.

“For us, it is very much use it or lose it.”

Ms Saba said the younger baby boomers had not experienced the adversity of the older generation.

in an era of credit cards and depression medication.

“We’ve had to struggle, we didn’t have access to credits cards, if we wanted something we had to save for it, but the present generation really haven’t had to do that, if they wanted something, they just had to grab their credit card and go out and get it,” she said.

“I know a retired pharmacist who said part of the problem is that when these people started taking meds for depression, once they came off it they became severely depressed.

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg what these statistics are showing.”

Census data shows this age group also is generally more transient, which suggests there are a lot of grey nomads out and about living a happy and healthy retirement.

The survey showed that the strongest predictors of anxiety or depression in middle-age were being female, separated or divorced, being made redundant or in poor physical health.

Physical health was the only predictor among elderly, but this rate was no higher than through middle-age.

Dr Troller said more work needed to be done to determine exactly what the determinants of mental disorder in later life actually were.

A new Australian National Mental Health and Wellbeing Survey is now underway. will provide more data to be released to researchers in 2008.