Suicidal thoughts and dementia

Summary ng from a previous investigation on the diagnosis of dementia based on the guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association in the oldest old patients, the present work focuses on the suicidal thoughts expressed as the Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale (MADRS), item 10 score in the two subgroups of 18 demented and 16 non-demented subjects aged 91–104 years. We have not found any differences regarding depression or suicidal thoughts between the two subgroups. Our results are discussed and support the trends of recent literature, accessed through the Medline database.