Late-Onset Suicide: A Dementia Prodrome?

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether late-onset (versus early-onset) suicidal behavior is associated with worse cognition.

Methods: Participants included 278 adults aged 50+ years (56 nonpsychiatric comparison group; 67 nonsuicidal depressed older adults; 63 depressed suicide ideators; and 44 late-onset (55+ years) and 48 early-onset suicide attempters (<55 years). Using a case-control design, this study examined group differences in global cognition, episodic memory, information processing speed, and executive functioning, assessed using the Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status and the Trail Making Test from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Linear regression was used for data analyses.

Results: Both attempter groups displayed worse executive functioning than nonsuicidal depressed older adults. Late-onset attempters additionally displayed poorer global cognition and processing speed than nonsuicidal depressed older adults and poorer memory than early-onset attempters.

Conclusions: Late-onset suicidal behavior is associated with worse performance in a broad range of cognitive domains, possibly reflective of a dementia prodrome.

Keywords: Cognition; Dementia; Late-life depression; Suicide.