Centre for Policy on Ageing



Coroner's verdicts in the elderly — a suicide or an open verdict?
Author(s)	Emad Salib
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 12, no 4,, April 1997
Pages	pp 481-483
Keywords	Postmortems ; Death ; Suicide ; Variance analysis ; Cheshire.
Annotation	The author identifies variables, other than legal definitions that may have influenced a coroner in returning a verdict of 'suicide' or an 'open verdict' on unexpected deaths in older people. In this review of coroners' verdicts in North Cheshire during the period 1989 to 1993, 47 'suicide' and 'open verdict' deaths of deceased aged 65 and over were defined in ICD classification 'E' codes E950-E959 and E980-E989 respectively. Logistic regression analysis suggests that the coroner's decision may be influenced by: intimation of intent, psychiatric history, and method of death. Sex of the deceased, history of attempted suicide, social setting and history of alcohol problems did not appear significantly associated with the coroner's verdict.
Accession Number	CPA-970807237 A
Classmark	JVP: CW: EV: 3YA: 8CH
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.