Depression and suicide attempt in an older adult. Case report

Abstract

Introduction: depression is one of the fundamental health problems of older adults. It is a disease little diagnosed and treated; On many occasions, symptoms are interpreted as something associated with aging. The worst complication is suicide.

Objective: to present an older adult patient with a depressive picture, repeated suicide ideas and attempts.

Case presentation: 64-year-old patient, female, single, retirement for nine years, with a history of mental health problems. For four years, as a result of the loss of her father and her personal problems, she began to present symptoms of anxiety, motor uneasiness in lower limbs, loss of appetite, insomnia and sadness; From which she made several suicide attempts. She was entered several times with the initial diagnosis of hysterical neurosis, and treatment with chlorpromain and olanzapine. After more than a year, she began a treatment with antidepressants, she was graduated and she did another suicide attempt at her home. She was admitted to a possible diagnosis of organic depression, subsequently defined as a serious depressive episode. Due to the risk of suicide conduct involving this diagnosis, it was applied electroconvulsive therapy.

Conclusions: in the older adult, depression is not diagnosed, because it becomes masked in physical symptoms and the deterioration of memory of these ages. In the case of the older adult that is presented, the depressive table was accompanied by repeated suicidal ideas and attempts