Department of Psychology, Mail Stop 42051, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-2051, USA.
Psychol Aging. 2011 Jun;26(2):331-8. doi: 10.1037/a0021836.
Older adults have the highest risk of death by suicide in the United States. Improving our understanding of the factors that lead to increased risk of suicide in older adults will greatly inform our ability to prevent suicide in this high-risk group. Two studies were conducted to test the effect of perceived burdensomeness, a component of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005), on suicide ideation in older adults. Further, gender was examined as a moderator of this association to determine if perceived burdensomeness exerted a greater influence on suicide ideation in males. The results of these studies suggest that perceived burdensomeness accounts for significant variance in suicide ideation, even after predictors such as depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and functional impairment are controlled. Gender did not moderate the association. The implications of these findings for treatment of older adults with suicide ideation and elevated suicide risk are discussed.
老年人是美国自杀死亡风险最高的人群。深入了解导致老年人自杀风险增加的因素，将极大地提高我们预防这一高风险群体自杀的能力。进行了两项研究，以测试感知负担（自杀的人际心理理论的一个组成部分，Joiner，2005）对老年人自杀意念的影响。此外，还研究了性别是否作为这种关联的调节因素，以确定感知负担对男性自杀意念的影响是否更大。这些研究的结果表明，即使在控制了抑郁症状、绝望和功能障碍等预测因素后，感知负担也能解释自杀意念的显著差异。性别并没有调节这种关联。这些发现对治疗有自杀意念和自杀风险升高的老年人的意义将进行讨论。
