Citation

Barnow S, Linden M. Fortschr. Med. Orig. 2001; 119(1): 33-36.

Vernacular Title

Wollen alte Menschen sterben? Suizidalitat und Lebensuberdruss im hohen Alter.

Affiliation

Eachbereich Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universität Greifswald.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Urban und Vogel)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11935655

Abstract

On the basis of the results of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), some 15% of persons aged 70 years and older confess to being tired of life, 5% express a wish to die, and 0.5-1% entertain thoughts of suicide. Women express a wish to die or have thoughts of suicide approximately 1.5 to 3 times more frequently than men. Depending on the severity of the suicidal tendency, more than 80% of such patients, and all of these entertaining thoughts of suicide, suffer from acute psychiatric disorders. Death wishes and thoughts of suicide must therefore always prompt an intensive psychiatric diagnostic work-up, and initiation of suitable and rigorous treatment, and must not be mistaken for the expression of understandable attitudes towards aging.

Language: de