A national target for reducing suicide

BMJ 1999;318:191 ( 16 January )

Letters

A national target for reducing suicide

Suicide in older people must be reduced

People over 65 should be a target group

Suicide in older people must be reduced

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Hawton's editorial emphasises the importance of continuing to set national targets to reduce the rate of suicide.¹We were surprised, however, by the groups that were selected asbeing particularly at risk of suicide and therefore as requiringspecialattention.

We agree that the rise in the rate of suicide in young men, both nationally and internationally, is of considerable concern.Suicide rates in men over 75 are still, however, the highest inany demographic group. Although it is difficult to predict futurechanges in rates of suicide accurately, evidence from birth cohortanalyses suggest that rates of suicide in older people will increase.²Targeted approaches for reducing suicide in older people wouldinclude optimising the management of pain and disability and reducinghandicap and socialisolation.

Among people who deliberately harm themselves, older people are even more likely than younger people to die by suicide.³Casualty and primary . . . [Full text of this article]