[When is suicide a risk in the widowed?].

In order to estimate the period of highest suicidal risk in widowed persons, the intervals between bereavement and death for 58 widowers and 91 widows who had committed suicide were compared with those for a control group of 110 widowers and 210 widows who had died from other causes. Suicides were found to be more closely related in time to the bereavement than were other causes of death. Men were found to be at highest risk of suicide shortly after bereavement, over one-quarter of the male suicide having occurred in the first six months of widowerhood. These findings provide guidance to the assessment of suicidal risk, and so to possible preventive measures.