Prevention of Suicide in Primary Care Elderly: Collaborative Trial

Suicide rates are highest in late life; the majority of older adults who die by suicide have seen a primary care physician in preceding months. Depression is the strongest risk factor for late-life suicide and for suicide's precursor, suicidal ideation.

The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which an intervention taht combined treatment guidelines with care management reduced rates of depression and suicide ideation in older primary care patients. The study randomized 20 primary care practices from New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh regions into intervention or usual car. The used a two-stage sampling design that resulted in a representative sample with an oversample of depressed patients (total n=1238 subjects including 598 with a depression diagnosis and 640 with no depression diagnosis). Patients were assessed at baseline, 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 months.