Biology of elderly suicide.

Most studies of suicide in younger patients have demonstrated significant alterations in the serotonin system. Although a high percentage of completed suicides occur in late-life, to date very few studies of the biology of suicide have focused on this age group. This chapter describes age-related changes in the central nervous system pertinent to the biology of suicide, then reviews post-mortem biological studies of the brains of suicides and suicide attempters. As suicide attempts in the elderly are characterized by the use of violent means, biologic studies of impulsive violence are discussed. Finally we describe data on the effect of degenerative diseases on the serotonin system and the possible link to increased suicidal behavior in affected patients. This review underscores the need for further study of the biology of suicide in the geriatric age group.

• Publication year

  1992

• Venue

  Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour

• Publication date

  1992-03-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/J.1943-278X.1992.TB00475.XPMID 1579986
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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