The health status of elderly persons in the last year of life: a comparison of deaths by suicide, injury, and natural causes.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study identified health status variables related to suicide by elderly persons and compared the health status of suicide decedents with natural death and injury decedents. METHODS: Data were obtained from the 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey. RESULTS: When other variables were controlled for, suicide decedents were significantly more likely than injury decedents to have a history of cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 51.94), moderate (OR = 29.37) or heavy (OR = 22.87) alcohol use, and mental or emotional disorder (OR = 10.91) and to be White (OR = 18.54) and male (OR = 9.12). CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that a history of cancer should be considered as a risk for suicide in the elderly.

Physical diseases as predictors of suicide in older adults: a nationwide, register-based cohort study

“…Liver disease is likely related to alcohol consumption and alcohol misuse disorders, which also has been linked to suicide among older adults [7,50]. Alcohol consumption might also partially explain the elevated risk of suicide among patient with certain gastrointestinal disorders, e.g.…”

“…However, physical diseases have in controlled studies been linked to late life suicide, such as cancer and malignancy [7][8][9][10][11][12], chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD) [13], dementia [14], heart diseases [13], liver diseases [10], seizure disorders [13], stroke [10,15,16], and visual impairment [8]. In studies including younger age groups, additional diseases have been linked to suicidal behaviour, for example, AIDS [17], arthritis [18], diabetes [19], epilepsy [19,20], multiple sclerosis [21][22][23], myocardial infarct [24], peptic ulcers [25], and renal disease [25].…”

“…selection bias due to small sample sizes [8][9][10]12], selected study samples [9], non-representative or absence of control groups [7,36], which obstruct the interpretation and comparison of the findings across studies. Nationwide, retrospective cohort data will enable an overview to identify whether specific physical diseases are linked to elevated risks of suicide with the perspective of developing strategies for interventions, e.g.…”

What precipitates deliberate self-harm?

“…Older patients were much more likely to have both a serious depressive illness and concomitant physical illness. Chronic illness and/ or pain are well-recognised risk factors for self-harm and suicide (Cassem 1991;Johanssen et al 1997), and are of particular importance in the elderly (Dennis & Lindesay 1995;Conwell 1997;Grabbe et al 1997;Lambert & Fowler 1997).…”

Depression, alcoholism and ageing: a brief review

“…Alcoholism and suicide also are linked in late middle life and old age (Blazer, 1982;Canetto, 1992;Conwell et al, 1990;Grabbe et al, 1997;Martin and Streissguth, 1982;Osgood and Manetta, 1998;Shah and Ganesvaran, 1997). But questions remain about the causal connections between these disorders.…”