Prevention of Suicide in the Elderly

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2003-08-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The purpose of this study is to design a program to prevent suicide in elderly patients by educating patients, their families, and physicians on depression and suicidal thoughts.

A program to prevent suicide in elderly patients needs to be developed. Since elderly patients frequently have doctor's visits, it may be best to have a suicide prevention program based in the patient's doctor's office.

When an older person visits a primary care physician, he/she will check for signs of depression, including thoughts of suicide. The doctor will speak to the patient about depression and how to recognize it. If the individual is diagnosed with depression, the doctor will offer treatment. During this study, the information the doctor collects will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The study will last for 2 years.

Eligibility for this study is age of at least 60 years and diagnosis of depression. (Depression required for 920 of the 1200 patients; 280 patients should have no symptoms of depression.)

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• Collaborator: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

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Patients must have:

Depressive symptoms and signs. (Required for 920 of the 1200 patients; 280 patients should have no significant depressive symptomatology.)