This research provides further evidence that the risk of suicide is increased after a diagnosis of dementia and adds understanding that a diagnosis of early-onset dementia raises this risk even further, says Dr. “The findings of this study are important for helping to raise public awareness about how devastating it is to receive a diagnosis of dementia, especially early-onset forms,” says Christina Hugenschmidt, PhD, an associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the director of the memory counseling program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, both in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who was not part of this study. “These findings suggest that memory clinics should particularly target suicide risk assessment to patients with young-onset dementia, patients in the first few months after dementia diagnosis, and patients already known to have psychiatric problems,” said the study's lead author, Danah Alothman, BMBCh, MPH, of the University of Nottingham, in a press release. The risk of suicide was also higher within the first few months of diagnosis and in people who had previously been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. The risk of suicide is nearly seven times higher after a diagnosis of young-onset (under the age of 65) dementia, according to a new UK study published online October 3 in JAMA Neurology.
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