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.