A Preventable Tragedy in a Man with Semantic Dementia

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: All suicide attempts andparasuicidal gestures should be taken very seriously in patients with dementia.“Previous parasuicide is a predictor of suicide. The increased risk of subsequent suicide persists without decline for at least two decades.”A newcase report on a 53 year old man1 withsemantic dementia (SD) presented his prior parasuicidal gestures as “stereotypic behaviour” [ed. NOTE: repeated attempts to hang himself with a cord is“stereotyped behavior”], with tragic consequences:The patient showed abnormal behaviours such as following around his wife and frequently visiting a drug store to purchase sleeping pills, which necessitated hospitalization. Despite having no depressive symptoms including suicidal ideation,he repeatedly attempted to hang himself with a cord during a temporary stay at home. At the time of the interview, he stated, ‘I found a cord suspended from the ceiling, and so just played with it by hanging myself. It was just a play’, indicating an absence of suicidal ideation and lack of seriousness for the event. In March 2012, he died by hanging himself with a towel inside his hospital room....Despite the fact that the man had been severely depressed for two years before his SD diagnosis, had a well-documented history of suicidal ideation, and had made several suicide attempts (Kobayashi et al., 2018):In April 2009, the patient started to express suicidal ideation such as ‘I would like to hang myself’. From May to...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs