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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| One hundred cases of attempted suicide in the elderly | | Author(s) | Jason Hepple, Catherine Quinton |
| Journal title | The British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 171, no 1, July 1997 |
| Pages | pp 42-46 |
| Keywords | Suicide ; Depression ; Death ; Longitudinal surveys ; Oxfordshire. |
| Annotation | Despite the high suicide rate in older people, there is a relative lack of information on the longer-term outcome of older people who have attempted suicide, particularly their psychiatric and physical morbidity and mortality. In this study, comprehensive demographic and psychiatric data were available on 100 consecutive referrals to an Oxfordshire liaison psychiatric service of patients over 65 years old who attempted suicide between 1989 and 1992. Detailed follow-up in 1994 included the interviewing of survivors using GMS-AGECAT. Of the 64 women and 36 men (mean age 75.6 years), 42 were dead at follow-up; 12 were suspected suicides, 5 having died as a result of the index attempt. 12 women made a further non-lethal suicide attempt. All five male repeat attempts proved fatal. Older people who attempt suicide have a high mortality both from completed suicide and death from other causes. The completed suicide rate is at least 1.5% per year, and the repetition rate is 5.4% per year. Those at risk of further self-harm are likely to be in contact with psychiatric services, and to be suffering from persistent depression. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980521002 A |
| Classmark | EV: ENR: CW: 3J: 8O |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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