Objective: To explore the characteristics of elderly suicide victims who were known to psychiatric services and their counterparts who were not.
Design: Explorative retrospective study using the records of coroner's inquests.
Materials and Methods: Available data suggests that early psychiatric intervention could prevent many elderly suicides. Studies showed that over 80% of the elderly who committed suicide received no psychiatric referral and only about 15% were under psychiatric care at the time of death.
In this study, data was extracted from the records of coroner’s inquests into all unexpected deaths of persons aged 60 and over, in Cheshire over a period of 13 years 1989-2001. The Coroner’s office covers the whole county of Cheshire (1,000,000 of population).
Results: Female suicide victims were more likely to utilize Psychiatric services (P<0.001). Those who were known to services were more likely to have a history of DSH, have contacted their GP prior to their death and use a violent suicidal method. They are, however, less likely to produce an evidence of intent. Significantly more of those who were not known to services were living alone (P<0.001). Significantly fewer widowed older adults who committed suicide were known to psychiatric services (P<0.001). Conclusion: Elderly suicide victims who never had contact with psychiatric services tend to be socially isolated and generally present with a first successful suicidal attempt without producing evidence of intent. This finding is of a major importance in service development and accessibility.
The role of primary care services in reducing the elderly suicide rate cannot be overemphasized. This is no different for those who are known to secondary services who would still rather contact their GPs as a final desperate action in their last few weeks.
| Known to services Male | Known to services Female | Unknown to services Male | Unknown to services Female | |
| Living alone | 6 | 12 | 52 | 36 |
| Married | 17 | 16 | 37 | 7 |
| Widowed | 2 | 33 | 11 | 34 |
| Childless | 10 | 5 | 33 | 22 |
| GP contact | 18 | 19 | 38 | 25 |
| Violent method | 15 | 22 | 54 | 18 |
| Non violent method | 8 | 12 | 40 | 31 |
| Evidence of intent | 6 | 12 | 55 | 28 |
| Psychiatric morbidity | 21 | 34 | 36 | 8 |
| History of DSH | 8 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
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