Passive Suicide Ideation in Older Adults: a Sign of Risk for Suicide?
Year: 2018
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Suicidal thinking in later life is poorly understood. Given the increased saliency of death later in life, a passive wish to die may represent engagement in a normative process of coming to terms with one’s mortality. Conversely, wishes to die may be signs of significant distress and an indicator of risk for suicide. These prospective analyses involve 1,036 older adults (n=408 male) selected from the Swedish population register. Subjects completed psychiatric evaluations and self-report measures, including the Paykel Scale. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses indicated that subjects who reported thoughts that life was not worth living or wishes for death lived significantly fewer days after their initial assessment (4.33 years versus 8.75 years, p<0.05). Active suicide ideation was not associated with premature mortality in this sample. Findings will be discussed with regard to potential confounders and implications for the role of types of suicidal thoughts in suicide risk in later life.
Source: Innovation in Aging
Authors: K A Van Orden, I Skoog, M Waern
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,977
OpenAlex ID: W2900240065