Aging & mental health
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Aging & mental health · Mar 2011
Coping in old age with extreme childhood trauma: aging Holocaust survivors and their offspring facing new challenges.
The Holocaust has become an iconic example of immense human-made catastrophes, and survivors are now coping with normal aging processes. Childhood trauma may leave the survivors more vulnerable when they are facing stress related to old age, whereas their offspring might have a challenging role of protecting their own parents from further pain. Here we examine the psychological adaptation of Holocaust survivors and their offspring in light of these new challenges, examining satisfaction with life, mental health, cognitive abilities, dissociative symptoms, and physical health. ⋯ Holocaust survivors still display posttraumatic stress symptoms almost 70 years after the trauma, whereas no intergenerational transmission of trauma was found among the second generation.
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Aging & mental health · Mar 2011
The mediating effect of perceived burdensomeness on the relation between depressive symptoms and suicide ideation in a community sample of older adults.
Suicide is a prevalent problem in older adults. One of the best predictors of suicide in older adults is suicide ideation; suicide ideation has been frequently associated with depression. However, suicide ideation is not always present when an older adult is depressed and is sometimes present when an older adult is not depressed. Perceived burdensomeness, a recently proposed risk factor [Joiner Jr, T.E. (2005)], has been linked to suicide ideation in depressed samples and in older adults. Thus, perceived burdensomeness may be the necessary risk factor for suicide ideation. ⋯ Perceived burdensomeness may explain the relation between depression and suicide ideation. Clinicians seeing older adults should assess for depression and perceived burdensomeness when determining suicide risk. Future research directions include treatment studies for perceived burdensomeness as a way to reduce suicide ideation.