Why You Need to Watch Your Elder for Signs of Suicide

While the elderly make up just 12% of the population, this age group accounted for 16% of suicides in 2004, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Family members, caregivers, and primary care physicians may mistake the signs of depression in the elderly as part of the normal aging process, but a failure to detect a greater problem can have dire consequences.

Depression is not a normal part of aging, and the best thing you can do for your elderly loved one is not to dismiss any sudden change in mood or function. One of the biggest misconceptions about depression in elderly people is that it is a natural response to circumstances, according to Kathleen Buckwalter, PhD, RN, professor of gerontological nursing research at the University of Iowa.

Increased medical burden, the loss of loved ones, and a decline in vision or other senses can all bring on bouts of depression among the elderly, even if a patient has no previous history of mental illness. According to a 2003 article in Clinical Geriatrics, a 2001 study found that up to 75% of depressed elders who committed suicide had seen a physician within the previous month. "Nobody really asks them how they're doing or if there is been a change in how they're doing," says Bruce G. Pollock, MD, PhD, the president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. "Physicians seeing them for other medical problems seldom ask them directly, 'Have you thought your life isn't worth living?'"