Scales of suicidal risk assessment in the elderly persons: Literature review

Introduction: Suicide affects all age groups and the elderly are among the most affected in terms of mortality. Screening and assessing the suicidal risk of elderly people are essential in terms of prevention and care. The purpose of this work is to carry out a bibliographical synthesis of the evaluation tools of the suicidal risk in the elderly subjects from literature. Methodology: We conducted a literature review using Pub Med, EMC, PsychINFO and Google Scholar as search engines. The keywords we used are: suicide, psychogeriatrics, elders age, status rating scale, suicide attempt. Results: We have retained in total three scales to assess suicidal risk in elderly patients. The most recently developed Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale (GSIS) is specific, easy-to-use and rapid scale. The two other scales, the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and the Beck Scale for suicide Ideation (BSS), also showed their effectiveness and reliability in older patients. Discussion: Based on the clinical and psychometric characteristics of these tools, we discuss their interest for clinicians, first the attending physicians, consulted by most of the elderly subjects during the month preceding their suicidal act. Conclusion: Elderly subjects are more exposed to suicidal risk; the gesture is often performed with a strong intentionality. Scales of suicidal risk assessment can help the practitioner achieve better prevention or care of the elderly patients concerned.