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REPEATED DELIBERATE SELF‐HARM IN THE ELDERLY
Author(s) -
PIERCE DAVID WILLIAM
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199611)11:11<983::aid-gps420>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - deliberate self harm , psychiatry , suicide prevention , harm , injury prevention , medicine , alcohol abuse , poison control , psychology , occupational safety and health , clinical psychology , medical emergency , social psychology , pathology
Previous reports on deliberate self‐harm (DSH) in old age are reviewed and the lack of any study on repetition in this group is pointed out. The study then describes 39 patients over the age of 60 who presented after repeated self‐harm at a district general hospital between 1973 and 1993. They made up 1% of all DSH cases, 28 were female and 11 were male, seven were multiple repeaters. Thirty were suffering from depressive illnesses, six showed significant cognitive impairment, while five (four of them women) gave a history of alcohol abuse. A trend emerged for women to score higher than men on a measure of suicidal intent. Two patients committed suicide during the study period. These findings are discussed together with their implications for the management and prevention of suicidal behaviour in the elderly.