Can some aspects of the epidemiology of elderly suicides be applied to dementia

Abstract

Two important aspects of the epidemiology of suicides in the elderly people can potentially be applied to dementia. The first is the well-established observation of the independent effects of age, birth cohort membership, and the period on the risk of suicide in the elderly people (Murphy et al., 1986; Surtees and Duffy, 1989; Snowdon and Hunt, 2002). The second is the recently developed concept of the epidemiological transition hypothesis of suicide in the elderly people (Shah and Bhat, 2009; Shah, 2010; Shah et al., 2008). These epidemiological aspects, in addition to the theoretical aspects, may also have clinical and public health implications for dementia.