Citation

Shah A, Hoxey K, Mayadunne V. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 2000; 15(2): 162-169.

Affiliation

Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK. a.k.shah@ic.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10679847

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicidal ideation among acutely medically ill elderly inpatients has been sparsely studied. A prospective study measuring the prevalence, correlates and longitudinal stability of suicidal ideation in acutely medically ill elderly inpatients was undertaken. METHOD: Suicidal ideation was measured using the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI) and the items of pessimism, life not worth living and a wish to die on the Brief Assessment Schedule (BAS). Formal measures of physical illness, functional disability and handicap were also used. Patients were seen at the outset and at about 6 months. RESULTS: The prevalence of suicidal ideation on the BSSI and the BAS items of pessimism, life not worth living and a wish to die were 36%, 60%, 33% and 22%, respectively. These four variables were significantly inter-correlated. The BSSI was significantly associated with BAS depression scores (P=0.0001), BAS depression caseness (P=0.0001) and prescription of antidepressants (P=0.007). Similar results were ascertained for the BAS items of pessimism, life not worth living and a wish to die. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies examining the longitudinal stability of suicidal ideation coupled with intervention studies to reduce suicidal ideation are required.

Language: en