Marco Innamorati1, Maurizio Pompili2, Cristina Di Vittorio1, Stefano Baratta1, Vittoria Masotti3, Annalisa Badaracco3, Yeates Conwell4, Paolo Girardi5, Mario Amore6. 1. Department of Neurosciences Division of Psychiatry, University of Parma, Parma, Italy. 2. Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Functions, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: maurizio.pompili@uniroma1.it. 3. Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology and Forensic Sciences, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Parma, Parma, Italy. 4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, NY. 5. Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Functions, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy. 6. Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology and Genetics, Section of Psychiatry, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors differentiating old-old elderly (those aged 75 years and older) who died by suicide from middle-aged (those aged 50-64 years) and young-old (aged 65-74 years) adults who took their own lives, and from living psychiatric outpatients 75 years and older who had no suicidal behaviors in the last 12 months before assessment. METHODS: Cases for psychological autopsy interviews were 117 old-old elderly who died by suicide between 1994 and 2009. Comparisons were 97 young-old adult and 98 middle-aged suicide victims and 117 psychiatric outpatients admitted to the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Parma (Parma, Italy) between 1994 and 2009. Information for suicide decedents was gathered through proxy-based interviews, and data regarding living comparison subjects were extracted from medical records. RESULTS: A high number of old-old elderly were widowed and lived alone before death; widowhood was more prevalent in the old-old elderly than in the younger suicide groups and the psychiatric outpatients. In addition, old-old elderly were more frequently characterized by the presence of life stressors in the few months before death compared with the psychiatric outpatients. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians involved in the prevention of suicide in older adults should pay particular attention to loneliness and lack of social support, two conditions that may push the individual to feel hopeless, especially in those individuals who are facing stressful life events.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors differentiating old-old elderly (those aged 75 years and older) who died by suicide from middle-aged (those aged 50-64 years) and young-old (aged 65-74 years) adults who took their own lives, and from living psychiatric outpatients 75 years and older who had no suicidal behaviors in the last 12 months before assessment. METHODS: Cases for psychological autopsy interviews were 117 old-old elderly who died by suicide between 1994 and 2009. Comparisons were 97 young-old adult and 98 middle-aged suicide victims and 117 psychiatric outpatients admitted to the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Parma (Parma, Italy) between 1994 and 2009. Information for suicide decedents was gathered through proxy-based interviews, and data regarding living comparison subjects were extracted from medical records. RESULTS: A high number of old-old elderly were widowed and lived alone before death; widowhood was more prevalent in the old-old elderly than in the younger suicide groups and the psychiatric outpatients. In addition, old-old elderly were more frequently characterized by the presence of life stressors in the few months before death compared with the psychiatric outpatients. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians involved in the prevention of suicide in older adults should pay particular attention to loneliness and lack of social support, two conditions that may push the individual to feel hopeless, especially in those individuals who are facing stressful life events.