Anxiety is a normal and ubiquitous emotion with adaptive value, in that is acts as a warning system alerting a person of impending danger. This system can be considered maladaptive, however, when anxiety becomes unjustifiably excessive and, thus, morbid. Both forms of anxiety, situational anxiety and pathological anxiety are common in the elderly. Also anxiety disorders in elderly persons are among the most frequently encountered psychiatric conditions. In this paper I begin with the epidemiology of anxiety in the elderly, discuss the clinical characteristics of late life anxiety with special attention to difficulties in the differential diagnostic evaluation and describe treatment strategies for managing elderly patients with anxiety disorders. In conclusion I try to discuss the question: "Anxiety in the elderly--Condition sine qua non?"