Depression, Hopelessness, and Suicidal Ideation in the Terminally Ill

Understanding the Will to Live in Patients Nearing Death

“…While the secondary role of physical variables may seem surprising, it is consistent with prior reports. 1,2,11,12 For example, studies on the desire for death and interest in physician- Because of its conceptual overlap with the will to live, this variable was not included in the regression analysis.…”

“…2,11 Hopelessness, the first variable to enter the model, is highly predictive of suicidal ideation in this patient population. 11,12 The construct of hope among the dying connotes having a sense of meaning and purpose. 13,14 It would appear that losing one's sense of meaning and purpose-experiencing life as having become redundant or futile-is an important existential underpinning of the loss of will to live among the dying.…”

Predictive factors for suicidal ideation in patients with unresectable lung carcinoma

“…Because our previous study indicated that the physical function of cancer patients was associated significantly with hopelessness/helplessness, 28 and several studies demonstrated a significant association between hopelessness and suicidal ideation, 13,17 patients' hopelessness might serve as a mediator between physical function and suicidal ideation. Conversely, although a significant association was indicated by the univariate analysis, the multivariate analyses did not show any such significance.…”

“…9,10 In addition, several studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of the desire for death among terminally ill cancer patients is not rare (range, 8.5-17.4%) [11][12][13][14] and that pain, weakness, loss of control, depression, hopelessness, and social support factors are associated significantly with the desire for death. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] However, the samples in these studies were heterogeneous and the study designs were cross-sectional, calling causality into question. Moreover, as far as we were able to determine, there have been no follow-up studies on suicidal ideation among patients with the same type of advanced carcinoma.…”

Geography of U.S. Biomedical Publications, 1990 to 1997

“…3 If one focuses only on the two trials from the National Cancer Institute 4,5 to evaluate combined androgen blockade, as Garnick does, then it may be tempting to ascribe the differences in outcome to the methods of gonadal ablation. However, an assessment of the overall experience with combined androgen blockade cannot rely on these two studies alone.…”