Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:1015-1020
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Suicidal feelings in a population sample of nondemented 85-year-olds
I Skoog, O Aevarsson, J Beskow, L Larsson, S Palsson, M Waern, S Landahl and S Ostling
Department of Psychiatry, Sahlgrenska Hospital, Goteborg University, Sweden. ingmar.skoog@psychiat.gu.se
OBJECTIVE: The authors studied the 1-month frequency of suicidal feelings
among very old people. METHOD: A population sample (N = 345) of nondemented
85-year-olds in Gothenburg, Sweden, were examined by a psychiatrist.
Suicidal feelings were rated by the system of Paykel et al. Mental
disorders were diagnosed according to DSM-III-R. RESULTS: Of the mentally
healthy subjects (N = 225), 4.0% had thought during the last month that
life was not worth living, 4.0% had had death wishes, and 0.9% had thought
of taking their own lives. None had seriously considered suicide. The
figures were higher among subjects with mental disorders (N = 120); 29.2%
had thought that life was not worth living, 27.5% had had death wishes,
9.2% had thought about taking their lives, and 1.7% had seriously
considered suicide. Among the subjects with mental disorders, including
depression, suicidal feelings were associated with greater use of
anxiolytics but not of antidepressants. Women who felt that life was not
worth living had a higher 3-year mortality rate than did women without
these feelings (43.2% versus 14.2%). This finding was independent of
concomitant physical and mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Mild suicidal
feelings are common in elderly subjects with metal disorders but infrequent
in the mentally healthy. The substantially higher mortality rate in women
who felt that life was not worth living, compared to women who did not,
suggests these feelings must be taken seriously. Because of the high
suicide rate in the elderly, there is a need for better diagnosis and
treatment of mental disorders in this age group.
