Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;29(7):709-713.
doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2020.12.004. Epub 2020 Dec 9.

Late-Onset Suicide: A Dementia Prodrome?

Swathi Gujral  1 , Meryl A Butters  2 , Alexandre Y Dombrovski  2 , Katalin Szanto  2
Affiliations

Late-Onset Suicide: A Dementia Prodrome?

Swathi Gujral et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether late-onset (versus early-onset) suicidal behavior is associated with worse cognition.

Methods: Participants included 278 adults aged 50+ years (56 nonpsychiatric comparison group; 67 nonsuicidal depressed older adults; 63 depressed suicide ideators; and 44 late-onset (55+ years) and 48 early-onset suicide attempters (<55 years). Using a case-control design, this study examined group differences in global cognition, episodic memory, information processing speed, and executive functioning, assessed using the Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status and the Trail Making Test from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Linear regression was used for data analyses.

Results: Both attempter groups displayed worse executive functioning than nonsuicidal depressed older adults. Late-onset attempters additionally displayed poorer global cognition and processing speed than nonsuicidal depressed older adults and poorer memory than early-onset attempters.

Conclusions: Late-onset suicidal behavior is associated with worse performance in a broad range of cognitive domains, possibly reflective of a dementia prodrome.

Keywords: Cognition; Dementia; Late-life depression; Suicide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Richard-Devantoy S, Berlim MT, Jollant F. A meta-analysis of neuropsychological markers of vulnerability to suicidal behavior in mood disorders. Psychological medicine. 2014;44(8):1663–1673. - PubMed
    1. Tu YA, Chen MH, Tsai CF, et al. Geriatric Suicide Attempt and Risk of Subsequent Dementia: A Nationwide Longitudinal Follow-up Study in Taiwan. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 2016;24(12):1211–1218. - PubMed
    1. Erlangsen A, Zarit SH, Conwell Y. Hospital-diagnosed dementia and suicide: a longitudinal study using prospective, nationwide register data. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. 2008;16(3):220–228. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gujral S, Ogbagaber S, Dombrovski AY, Butters MA, Karp JF, Szanto K. Course of cognitive impairment following attempted suicide in older adults. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2016;31(6):592–600. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Szucs A, Szanto K, Wright AGC, Dombrovski AY. Personality of late- and early-onset elderly suicide attempters. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2020;35(4):384–395. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types