Centre for Policy on Ageing



Attempted and completed suicide in older subjects — results from the WHO/EURO Multicentre study of suicidal behaviour
Author(s)	Diego De Leo, Walter Padoani, Paolo Scocco
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 16, no 3, March 2001
Pages	pp 300-310
Keywords	Suicide ; Death rate [statistics] ; Mental health [elderly] ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Europe.
Annotation	Analysis of findings for the 65 and over age group from the WHO/EURO Multi-Centre Study of Suicidal Behaviour (1989-93) is presented. Stockholm (Sweden), Pontoise (France), and Oxford had the highest suicide attempt rates. In most centres, the majority of older people who attempted suicide were widows or widowers, often living alone, who used predominantly voluntary drug ingestion. Non-fatal suicide behaviour decreased with increasing age, whereas suicide rates rose. The ratio between fatal and non-fatal behaviours was 1:2, that for males and females almost 1:1. In the years considered, substantial stability in suicide and attempted suicide rates was observed. As their age increased, suicidal subjects displayed only a limited tendency to repeat self-destructive acts. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-010406206 A
Classmark	EV: S5: D: F: 74
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.