Hospital-Diagnosed Dementia and Suicide: a Longitudinal Study Using Propsective, Nationwide Register Data

This study examined the risk of suicide in persons diagnosed with dementia during a hospitalization & its relationship to mood disorders. Event-history analysis using time-varying covariates was done of all individuals aged 50 & older living in Denmark during January 1990-December 2000. During the study period, 136 persons who previously had been diagnosed with dementia died by suicide. Men & women aged 50-69 years with hospital presentations of dementia had a relative suicide risk of 8.5 & 10.8, respectively. Those who were aged 70 or older with dementia had a 3-fold higher risk than persons with no dementia. The time shortly after diagnosis was associated with an elevated suicide risk. However, 38% of the men & 41% of the women died more than 3 years after initial diagnosis. (47 refs.) JA