A study of nearly 600,000 people in England shows that suicide risk in the first three months following a dementia diagnosis for patients aged under 65 is nearly seven times higher than in patients without dementia.
Researchers from WIPH and the University of Nottingham undertook a population-based case-control study of medical records from 2001–2019 to determine if there was a link between dementia diagnosis and suicide risk. The results showed that patients were at a high risk of suicide after a dementia diagnosis if aged under 65, during the first three months after a diagnosis, or if they had known psychiatric illness.
Patients receiving a dementia diagnosis before age 65 (“young onset dementia”) had 2.82 times increased risk of suicide and patients (of any age) within 3 months of receiving a dementia diagnosis had 2.47 times increased risk of suicide when compared with those without a dementia diagnosis. Patients with dementia who died by suicide had been diagnosed at a younger median age (76.05) than patients with dementia who died from other causes (80.50). Nearly 2% of patients with a dementia diagnosis died from suicide.
In the UK, around 850,000 people are currently living with dementia, now the leading cause of death. Around 70,800 of these have young onset dementia. Only around two-thirds of those living with dementia have received a diagnosis, and improving access to a timely and accurate dementia diagnosis is a major NHS priority. However, the expansion of memory clinics for diagnosing dementia has not always been accompanied by additional resources for supporting patients in the difficult period after they are given a diagnosis.
Authors conclude that early recognition and a timely accurate diagnosis of dementia, combined with specialist support, are hugely important factors in reducing the distress caused by a young onset diagnosis.
Senior Author Charles Marshall said: “Improving access to a dementia diagnosis is an important healthcare priority. However, a dementia diagnosis can be devastating, and our work shows that we also need to ensure that services have the resources to provide appropriate support after a diagnosis is given.”
Danah Alothman, Timothy Card, Sarah Lewis, Edward Tyrrell, Andrew W Fogarty, Charles Marshall. Risk of suicide after dementia diagnosis: a longitudinal population-based study. In press, JAMA Neurology. DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3094