What Cognitive functins are associated with passive suicidal ideation? Findings from a national sample of community dwelling Israelis

Liat Ayalon*, Howard Litwin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the specific cognitive domains associated with passive suicidal ideation (e.g. thoughts of being better off dead). Methods: A cross sectional, national based study of 1,712 individuals over the age of 50. Outcome measure, passive suicidal ideation, was evaluated by the question, 'in the past month, have you felt that you would rather be dead?', taken from the Euro-D. Cognitive domains assessed were time orientation, verbal learning, verbal recall, word fluency, and arithmetic. Results: After adjusting for demographic and clinical information, those reporting passive suicidal ideation were significantly more likely to have impaired performance on the time orientation task. None of the other cognitive domains were associated with passive suicidal ideation. Conclusions: Clinicians working with older adults need to be aware not only of demographic and clinical information, but also of cognitive functioning and more specifically, time orientation, as a potential determinant of passive suicidal ideation. Possibly, cognitive domains that are less affected by education and prior learning (e.g. time orientation) have a unique association with passive suicidal ideation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)472-478
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Volume24
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Keywords

  • Affect
  • Death
  • Epidemiology
  • Risk
  • Suicidality

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'What Cognitive functins are associated with passive suicidal ideation? Findings from a national sample of community dwelling Israelis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this