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Suicide in older people without psychiatric disorder
- Authors:
- HARWOOD Daniel, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 21(4), April 2006, pp.363-367.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This UK study aimed to determine the psychological characteristics and nature of life problems, including physical illness, in people 60 years and over dying through suicide in the absence of psychiatric disorder. Psychological autopsy interviews with relatives and friends for 23 people aged 60 years or over who had died through suicide and did not have a psychiatric disorder at the time of death. Three (13%) of the sample had significant psychiatric symptoms, one had a diagnosis of personality disorder, and ten (43.5%) had significantly abnormal personality traits. Physical illness and recent bereavement were the commonest life problems associated with suicide. Five (21.7%) of the sample were suffering from severe physical illness at the time of death. It is concluded that sub-syndromal psychiatric disorder may be less important than personality factors, physical illness, and recent bereavement as important contributory factors to suicide in older people not suffering from psychiatric illness at the time of death.
Psychiatric disorder and personality factors associated with suicide in older people: a descriptive and case-control study
- Authors:
- HARWOOD Daniel, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16(2), February 2001, pp.155-165.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Reports on a study to determine the rates of psychiatric disorder and personality variables in a sample of older people who had committed suicide and to compare the rates in a subgroup of this sample with those in a control group of people who died from natural causes. The sample covered four counties and one large urban area in central England. Results found seventy-seven per cent of the suicide sample had a psychiatric disorder at the time of death, most often depression. Personality disorder or personality trait accentuation was present in 44 percent. Depression, personality disorder, and personality trait accentuation emerged as predictors of suicide in the case-control analysis. Concludes that personality factors, as well as depression, are important risk factors for suicide in older people.