Suicide attempts in elderly psychiatric inpatients.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the psychopathological characteristics of elderly suicide attempters admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit.

DESIGN

Retrospective chart review.

PATIENTS

All 168 patients age 60 years and over treated on the adult psychiatric inpatient unit of Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1979 to 1984. Twenty-five made a suicide attempt.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Presence and severity of suicide attempts were rated and compared with demographic, clinical, and functional data.

RESULTS

(1) Eighty percent of the attempters had a major depressive syndrome; (2) among patients with affective disorders, presence of an attempt was significantly associated with a later age of onset; (3) patients who had made more severe attempts were more likely to be diagnosed as psychotic depression, although this trend was not significant; (4) substance abuse and dementia were uncommon diagnoses; (5) symptomatic and functional outcome of hospitalization was as favorable for the attempters as for the entire elderly cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

Affective illness, especially late-onset major depression, was the major association with suicide attempts.