Measuring suicide risk in the elderly with non-institutionalized depression: an integrative review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: Analyze the state of the art about instruments, at national and international levels, for assessing the risk of suicide in elderly people with depression assisted in the community. Methods: Integrative review of 38 complete articles, published in journals indexed in the databases: US National Library of Medicine (PubMed Central), Scopus, CINAHL and Web of Science, located using controlled descriptors combined with Boolean operators: elderly OR aged OR older OR elder OR geriatric AND depression AND suicide AND risk assessment. Results: Six instruments were found, all international and published in the English language, in order to identify suicidal behavior and ideation in the elderly. Of these, two are specific scales for assessing the risk of suicide in the elderly in the community: 5-item GDS subscale and Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale. Final considerations: With the scarcity of national instruments to assess such risk, research is recommended to cross-culturally adapt one of these scales to the Brazilian Portuguese language.

Keywords

• Elderly
• Suicide
• Depression
• Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
• Mental Health