TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2000//
TI  - Suicidal ideation in acutely medically ill elderly inpatients: prevalence, correlates and longitudinal stability
JO  - International journal of geriatric psychiatry
A1  - Shah, A.
A1  - Hoxey, K.
A1  - Mayadunne, V.
SP  - 162
EP  - 169
VL  - 15
IS  - 2
N2  - 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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0885-6230
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -