Centre for Policy on Ageing



A study of suicides of older people in Sydney
Author(s)	John Snowdon, Pierre Baume
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 17, no 3, March 2002
Pages	pp 261-269
Keywords	Suicide ; Depression ; Death ; Longitudinal surveys ; Australia.
Annotation	A coroner's office in Sydney provided data concerning suicides of over 65s for 1994 to 1998. Of 210 older people who killed themselves, 160 (76%) were clearly depressed, including most of the 24% deemed to have understandable reasons for suicide. Physical ill health or disability was the major factor leading to suicide in 34%, and appeared to contribute to suicidal ideation in another 24% of those who died; they had usually not been seen by a psychiatrist. Because depression is often treatable - even when associated with depressing circumstances - there is potential for further reduction of old age suicide rates by recognising and appropriately responding to symptoms of depression and distress. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020327213 A
Classmark	EV: ENR: CW: 3J: 7YA
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.