SUICIDAL IDEATION IN ELDERLY BEREAVED - THE ROLE OF COMPLICATED GRIEF

This study examined whether symptoms of complicated grief at baseline predicted suicidal ideation during a depressive episode in elderly ber eaved individuals. Over a 17-month period, serial ratings of suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and symp toms of depression, anxiety, and comp licated grief were obtained from 130 elderly participants who had lost their spouses within the past 2 years. Groups of active and passive s uicidal ideators, as well as nonideator controls, were compared via an alysis of variance (ANOVA) with respect to levels of complicated grief , depression, and anxiety. Elderly bereaved with both active and passi ve suicidal ideation were found to have higher symptomatic levels of d epression, hopelessness, complicated grief, and anxiety, as well as lo wer levels of perceived social support, than nonideators at study entr y. Fifty-seven percent of the patients with high complicated grief sco res were found to be ideators during the follow-up versus 24% of the p atients with low complicated grief scores. Patients with any suicidal ideation had higher symptom levels of depression, anxiety, and complic ated grief when they were ideators as compared with periods when they denied ideation. Fifteen out of the 39 ideators had recurrent depressi ve episodes versus 5 of the 91 nonideators. Patients with a history of suicide attempts were more likely to be ideators after loss than othe r bereaved. Thus, the condition of having high levels of complicated g rief symptoms and depressive symptoms appears to make bereaved individ uals vulnerable to suicidal ideation. Detection of high levels of comp licated grief could help clinicians identify patients who may be at he ightened risk for suicide.