A neuropsychological comparison of depressed suicide attempters and nonattempters

The neuropsychological performanace of 18 older inpatients with major depre ssion who were admitted following a suicide attempt was compared with that of 29 older depressed inpatients who had never attempted suicide. There was an interactive effect of age and group on the Trail Making Test, part B, s uch that attempters showed greater performanace declines with age. No other differences were detected between groups on a range of neuropsychological tasks. These findings are discussed in the context of fire methodological l imitations of previous studies and the need for future research to better e lucidate the nature of the relationships between age, cognitive functioning , and suicidal behavior.