Brooding, reflection, and anger rumination in late life suicidal behavior.

Background: Current literature on age-specific risk factors for suicide in older adulthood is lacking. One risk factor for younger-life suicide, rumination, has not been extensively studied in older adults, but from prior research, may be more relevant to late-life vs. early life suicide. The current study investigated how multiple subtypes of rumination (i.e., brooding, reflection, and anger rumination) relate to suicidal ideation and recent suicidal behavior in late life.

Methods: 378 participants aged 50-90 (mean age 63.4, SD 7.5) were recruited into a case-control study examining suicide in older adults. Participants were recruited into three groups: 1) depressed adults who had made a recent (past two years) suicide attempt, 2) those with depression but no suicide attempt, and 3) a healthy comparison group. Among depressed groups, we examined relationships between rumination types, trait anger, depression, and suicidal ideation. Then, we conducted logistic regression to test which variables were related to having made a suicide attempt in the past two years among those with current suicidal ideation.

Results: All forms of rumination were related to depression. Brooding was related to ideation severity, but only depression severity related to presence of ideation. Anger rumination and ideation severity each contributed unique variance in their prediction of recent suicide attempts.

Limitations: Our cross-section design does not allow for causal claims; future studies should consider using ecological momentary assessment approaches.

Conclusions: Treatments to decrease rumination without an intense cognitive component should be considered for late-life patients.