Evaluation of socio-demographic factors and attempted suicides in the elderly

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study is to reveal the socio-demographic and certain clinical characteristics of elderly patients admitted to the emergency department after a suicide attempt.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The universe of the study consisted of 96 patients aged 60 and over who were admitted to emergency department of Izmir Dokuz Eylul University Hospital between 2015-2019 due to a suicide attempt. Information for the study was obtained by retrospectively scanning the files of the patients.Results: Mean age of the 96 patients included in the study was 68.22 ± 9.45 years. The most common suicide method among the patients was drug overdose (n: 59, 61.45%). It was found that 45.05% of the patients who attempted suicide had a known psychiatric diagnosis (n:41). The suicide rate of women (n:42, 43.75%) who were primary school graduates (p=0.026), had a known psychiatric illness (p=0.001), continuously used drugs (p=0.002) and used antidepressants (p lt;0.001) was significantly higher compared to men (n:54, 56.25%).Conclusion: Being a primary school graduate, having a psychiatric illness, and using antidepressants increase suicide rates in women. It was suggested that this group of patients with suicidal tendencies should be treated with more care in emergency department.

Keywords

• emergency department
• suicide
• aged patient
• risk factors
• acil servis
• intihar
• yaşlı hasta
• risk faktörleri