Estudio piloto sobre la ideación suicida en ancianos puertorriqueños en un Hospital de Salud Mental / Pilot study of suicidal ideation among elderly Puerto Ricans in a mental health hospital

This is one of the first descriptive-explorative studies done about suicidal thoughts in aging patients (age mean 60.7) within a mental health hospital in Puerto Rico. The purpose of this study was to identify common characteristics found in elderly patients that present suicidal thought and were hospitalized from January to June. The major finding indicates a great prevalence rate in men who were divorced, catholic, with a diagnosis on the axis I of the DSM IV and who had a previous history of such thoughts. In order to obtain a more comprehensive profile of the elderly patient with suicidal thoughts we suggest more research concerning this issue. Such investigations could be used in the prevention of elderly suicide