Relation Between Depression Symptoms and Suicide Risk in Adults and Older Adults: A Brief Report

Depression symptoms are key risk factors for suicide; however, older adults differ from younger adults in types of depression symptoms experienced and thus their risk factors for suicide. The present brief report investigated relations between different symptoms of depression and suicide risk and whether these relations are moderated by age. Participants were 944 community-dwelling adults ( N = 512, M = 39) and older adults ( N = 432, M = 66) from the United States recruited through Mechanical Turk. Participants completed self-report measures on depression symptoms and suicide risk. Age was found to moderate the relation between cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms and suicide risk. Younger age exacerbated the negative effects of these symptoms on suicide risk. The study is the first to investigate whether older adults differed from younger adults in the association between types of depression symptoms and suicide risk and found that the risk posed by cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms was greater for younger adults.