Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:32:29.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anxiety symptoms and suicidal feelings in a population sample of 70-year-olds without dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2012

Mattias Jonson ,
Ingmar Skoog ,
Thomas Marlow ,
Madeleine Mellqvist Fässberg  and
Margda Waern
Mattias Jonson
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Ingmar Skoog
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Thomas Marlow
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Madeleine Mellqvist Fässberg
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Margda Waern*
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: M. Waern, Psychiatric Clinic, Blå Stråket 15, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, SE 413 45 Gothenburg, Sweden. Phone: +46 31 342 2164; Fax: +46 31 82 8163. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: The role of anxiety in late-life suicidal behavior has received relatively little attention. The aim was to explore the association between anxiety symptoms and suicidal feelings in a population sample of 70-year-olds without dementia, and to test whether associations would be independent of depression.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews (N = 560) were carried out by psychiatric nurses and past month symptoms were rated with the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS). The Brief Scale for Anxiety (BSA) was derived from the CPRS to quantify anxiety symptom burden. Past month suicidal feelings were evaluated with the Paykel questions.

Results: Anxiety symptom burden was associated with suicidal feelings and the association remained after adjusting for major depression. One individual BSA item (Inner tension) was independently associated with suicidal feelings in a multivariate regression model. The association did not remain, however, in a final model in which depression symptoms replaced depression diagnosis.

Conclusions: Results from this population study suggest an association between anxiety and suicidal feelings in older adults. The role of anxiety and depression symptoms needs further clarification in the study of suicidal behavior in late life.

Keywords

anxietysuicidal feelingsdepressionolder adultspopulation study
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 24 , Issue 11 , November 2012 , pp. 1865 - 1871
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allgulander, C. and Lavori, P. (1993). Causes of death among 936 elderly patients with “pure” anxiety neurosis in Stockholm County, Sweden, and in patients with depressive neurosis or both diagnoses. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 34, 299–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Åsberg, M., Montgomery, S. A., Perris, C., Schalling, D. and Sedvall, G. (1978). A comprehensive psychopathological rating scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 271, 5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boden, J. M., Fergusson, D. M. and Horwood, L. J. (2007). Anxiety disorders and suicidal behaviours in adolescence and young adulthood: findings from a longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine, 37, 431–440.Google Scholar
Bryant, C., Jackson, H. and Ames, D. (2008). The prevalence of anxiety in older adults: methodological issues and a review of the literature. Journal of Affective Disorders, 109, 233–250.Google Scholar
Chiu, H. F. K. et al. (2004). Elderly suicide in Hong Kong: a case-controlled psychological autopsy study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109, 299–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A., Gilman, S. E., Houck, P. R., Szanto, K. and Reynolds III, C. F. (2009). Socioeconomic status and anxiety as predictors of antidepressant treatment response and suicidal ideation in older adults. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 44, 272–277.Google Scholar
Diefenbach, G. J., Woolley, S. B. and Goethe, J. W. (2009). The association between self-reported anxiety symptoms and sucidality. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 197, 92–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawcett, J. (2009). Severe anxiety and agitation as treatment modifiable risk factors for suicide. In Wasserman, D. and Wasserman, C. (eds.), Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention (pp. 407–412). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawgood, J. and De Leo, D. (2008). Anxiety disorders and suicidal behavior: an update. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 1, 51–64.Google Scholar
Hawton, K. and van Heeringen, K. (2009). Suicide. Lancet, 373, 1372–1381.Google Scholar
Jeste, N. D., Hays, J. C. and Steffens, D. C. (2006). Clinical correlates of anxious depression among elderly patients with depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 90, 37–41.Google Scholar
Lapierre, S. et al. (2012). Daily hassles, physical illness, and sleep problems in older adults with wishes to die. International Psychogeriatrics, 24, 243–252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mehta, K. M. et al. (2003). Prevalence and correlates of anxiety symptoms in well-functioning older adults: findings from the health aging and body composition study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 51, 499–504.Google Scholar
Mellqvist, M., Wiktorsson, S., Joas, E., Östling, S., Skoog, I. and Waern, M. (2011). Sense of coherence in elderly suicide attempters: the impact of social and health-related factors. International Psychogeriatrics, 23, 986–993.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nepon, J., Belik, S. L., Bolton, J. and Sareen, J. (2010). The relationship between anxiety disorders and suicide attempts: findings from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Depression and Anxiety, 27, 791–798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orgeta, V. (2011). Emotional dysregulation and anxiety in late adulthood. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 1019–23.Google Scholar
Pachana, N. A., Byrne, G. J., Siddle, H., Koloski, N., Harley, E. and Arnold, E. (2007). Development and validation of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 103–114.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Lindenthal, J. and Tanner, J. (1974). Suicidal feelings in the general population: a prevalence study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 460–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Placidi, G. P. A., Oquendo, M. A., Malone, K. M., Brodsky, B., Ellis, S. P. and Mann, J. J. (2000). Anxiety in major depression: relationship to suicide attempts. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 1614–1618.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ringbäck Weitoft, G. and Rosén, M. (2005). Is perceived nervousness and anxiety a predictor of premature morality and severe morbidity? A longitudinal follow up of the Swedish survey of living conditions. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 794–798.Google Scholar
Sareen, J. et al. (2005). Anxiety disorders and risk for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 1249–1257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scocco, P. and De Leo, D. (2002). One-year prevalence of death thoughts, suicide ideation and behaviours in an elderly population. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 842–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirey, J. A. et al. (2008). Depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among older adults receiving home delivered meals. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23, 1306–1311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skoog, I. (2004). Psychiatric epidemiology of old age: the H70 study – the NAPE lecture 2003. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109, 4–18.Google Scholar
Skoog, I., Nilsson, L., Landahl, S. and Steen, B. (1993). Mental disorders and the use of psychotropic drugs in an 85-year-old urban population. International Psychogeriatrics, 5, 33–48.Google Scholar
Skoog, I. et al. (1996). Suicidal feelings in a population sample of nondemented 85-year-olds. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 1015–1020.Google Scholar
Tyrer, P., Owen, R. T. and Cicchetti, D. V. (1984). The brief scale for anxiety: a subdivision of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 47, 970–975.Google Scholar
van der Laan, N., Schimmel, A. and Heeren, T. J. (2005). The applicability and the inter-rater reliability of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale in an elderly clinical population. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 35–40.Google Scholar
Waern, M., Beskow, J., Runeson, B. and Skoog, I. (1999). Suicidal feelings in the last year of life in elderly people who commit suicide. Lancet, 354, 917–918.Google Scholar
Waern, M. et al. (2002). Mental disorder in elderly suicides. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 450–455.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jonson supplementary material

Jonson supplementary material

Download Jonson supplementary material(File)
File 16.7 KB