The suicide of an elderly patient in Northern Tunisia

Abstract

Suicide amongst elderly patients is a rarity in Tunisian forensic studies. Our study concerns 98 cases of suicide
amongst elderly patients, who were aged 65 and above and who had undergone an autopsy, in the Department of
Legal Medicine at the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis. The 98 cases which are the object of our study represent
7.7% of all of the suicide cases listed during the period of our study. A distinct masculine predominance was
observed (76.5% of the cases). The most-affected age bracket is between 65 and 69 years. In 60% of cases it was
a person living alone, either single or widowed. Hanging was the chosen means of suicide in the majority of cases,
followed by poisoning and drowning. In only 18 cases had the victim been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder,
and in 11% of the cases a neoplastic pathology was discovered in the autopsy