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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The wish to die in very old persons near the end of life : a psychiatric problem?
— results from the Berlin Aging Study | | Author(s) | Michael Linden, Sven Barnow |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 9, no 3, September 1997 |
| Pages | pp 291-307 |
| Keywords | Death ; Dying ; Suicide ; Mental disorder ; Over 70s ; Social surveys ; Germany. |
| Annotation | A representative community sample of 526 people aged 70 to 105 from the Berlin Ageing Study was extensively investigated by psychiatrists using the structured interview Geriatric Mental State Examination Version A (GMS-A) and several self-rating and observer-rating scales. Diagnoses were made according to DSM-III-R criteria and by clinical judgement. The study's aim was to find examples of `pathology-free wishes to kill oneself'. 114 (21.1% of the sample) said that they wanted to die, or felt that life was not worth living. 43 (6%) had the wish to be dead according to the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) or the GMS-A; 11 had suicidal intentions. Depending on intensity of suicidality, 80-100% were clinically diagnosed as having psychiatric disorders; more than half showed symptoms fulfilling criteria of at least one specified psychiatric diagnosis. Acute suicidal intentions were in all cases associated with at least one specified diagnosis according to DSM-III-R. 13 out of 54 who actually wanted to die did not fulfil criteria for specified diagnosis. Results strongly suggest that the wish to be dead in the very old is most probable, and suicidal intentions are definitely associated with psychiatric disorders. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981001002 A |
| Classmark | CW: CX: EV: E: BBK: 3F: 767 |
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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