title: Physical health and mental disorder in elderly suicide: a case-control study.
abstract: The psychological autopsy method was used to study 95 cases of suicide. Ninety-five comparison subjects matched for gender, age, region, and date of death were selected from the death register. This study showed that suicide cases did not differ from controls with regard to the number of chronic health problems and, compared to the suicide cases, the controls had less functional autonomy six months prior to death. If minor and sub-threshold depression cases were included, 74.7% of the suicide cases would have been considered as having a mental health disorder compared to 12.6% in the control group. When the effect of other co-variables were controlled for, multivariate analysis showed that suicide cases and controls did not differ according to marital status, education, income, and living arrangement. Furthermore, suicide cases were no more likely than controls to seldom meet with family members or friends or to have been isolated during the six-month period preceding their death. Our findings suggest that detection of psychiatric disorders, mainly depression, must be included in late life suicide prevention strategies.
authors.affiliation: Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. michel.preville@usherbrooke.ca
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Préville
authors.forename: Réjean
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hébert
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bravo
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seguin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D015897:Comorbidity; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D019727:Proxy; D011792:Quebec; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*