A “dementia diagnosis can be devastating” and new findings “suggest that memory clinics should particularly target suicide risk assessment to patients with young-onset dementia”.

Dementia affects around 850,000 people in the United Kingdom and is the biggest cause of death.

Of these, 42,000 have young-onset dementia. Only about two-thirds of people with dementia have received a diagnosis, and the NHS has made it a top priority to provide access to prompt and accurate dementia diagnoses.

However, there haven’t always been more resources available to support people throughout the challenging time following a diagnosis with dementia along with the growth of memory clinics for dementia diagnosis.

To establish whether there was a correlation between a dementia diagnosis and suicide risk, researchers from the Queen Mary University of London and the University of Nottingham conducted a population-based case-control study using medical records from 2001 to 2019.

Researchers discovered that almost 2% of dementia sufferers committed suicide.

Out of the 4940 people with dementia who were found through primary and secondary care, 95 (1.92%) died by suicide.

Patients (of any age) within 3 months of obtaining a dementia diagnosis had a 2.47-fold increased risk of suicide compared to individuals without a dementia diagnosis, while patients diagnosed with dementia before age 65 had a 2.82-fold increased risk of suicide.

Patients with dementia who committed suicide were diagnosed at a much younger median age (76.05) than those who died of other causes (80.50).

The findings revealed that patients under the age of 65, during the first three months after a dementia diagnosis, or if they had a known psychiatric disease were at significant risk of suicide after a dementia diagnosis.

Early detection and proper diagnosis of dementia, in combination with specialized care, are critical elements in lowering the suffering caused by a young onset diagnosis.

“Improving access to a dementia diagnosis,” according to Senior author Dr. Charles Marshall is a clinical senior lecturer, honorary consultant neurologist at Queen Mary’s Wolfson Institute of Population Health, “is an important healthcare priority.

“However, a dementia diagnosis can be devastating, and our work,” the author added, “shows that we also need to ensure that services have the resources to provide appropriate support after a diagnosis is given.”

“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 a dementia diagnosis and patients are already known to have psychiatric problems,” added Lead author and University of Nottingham researcher Dr. Danah Alothman.

Source: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3094

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