Kamo E. Vardanyan
The article discusses the epidemiology and peculiarities of suicides in the elderly. With every passing year, the number of suicides on planet Earth records an unprecedented surge, including RA. In 2017, 29 cases of suicide among the elderly were registered in the Republic of Armenia, in 2018 there were 48 cases, in 2019 53 cases were recorded. Over the same period of time, the number of suicide attempts by older people has also increased: 32 in 2017, 52 in 2018 and 59 in 2019.
In some cases, suicides among the elderly have a suicide-accident pattern that is the ramification of age-related dementia. The suicides of the elderly due to incurable and malignant diseases are aimed at ending their own suffering. The largest number of suicides occurs among elderly people who have lost their other half and are in a state of helplessness and despair. Sometimes older people imitate the destructive behavior of people who are suicidal as a result of severe stress. Suicidal modeling is predominantly found in adolescents, but in this case, the object of replication is a well-known, influential person, and in the elderly, the object of imitation is a spouse or a peer At this age, various mental disorders are also important: in nine out of ten cases of suicide, the person at the time of suicide suffered from a specific mental illness. Due to old age, the social roles of a citizen and a professional are devalued, the social significance of a parent is reduced, and the activity of a husband/wife/and sexual partner in matrimonial life weakens. With retirement, the social environment changes, the rhythm, quality and style of life change as well, with the loss of family members comes a feeling of loneliness and isolation, with the inevitability of death, a morbid fear of death manifests itself. Older people become more sensitive and susceptible to changes within themselves and in their social environment. As a result, the causes of suicide in combination with the conditions for suicide, when given the right opportunity, lead to suicidal actions.