| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Suicidal ideation and the "wish to die" in dementia patients
— the role of depression | | Author(s) | Brian Draper, Cressida MacCuspie-Moore, Henry Brodaty |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 27, no 4, July 1998 |
| Pages | pp 503-508 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Suicide ; Death ; Dying ; Depression ; Correlation ; Australia. |
| Annotation | A sample of 221 Australian patients with dementia, comprising referrals from 1985 to 1995 were included in this study. Cognitive impairment was measured by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Blessed orientation - information - memory - concentration test and dementia scales, depression by the 21 Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression (HRSD), suicidal ideation and the `wish to die' as defined by the suicide item on the HRSD, functional capacity by the activities of daily living (ADLs) scale, and the instrumental ADLs scale. Caregiver psychological morbidity was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire. 12 patients (5.4%) felt life was not worth living, 7 (3.2%) `wished to die' or had thoughts of death, 2 (0.9%) had suicidal ideation or gestures, and none had made any suicide attempts. The 9 who `wished to die' or had suicidal ideation scored 12 or more on the HRSD. Of these, 6 were clinically depressed. Suicidal ideation and the `wish to die' were significantly correlated with the presence of depressive symptoms as measured by the HRSD (suicide item excluded), but only in those with Alzheimer's disease (AD). There were no significant differences in HRSD scores between the dementia groups. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981208248 A |
| Classmark | EA: EV: CW: CX: ENR: 49: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|