Studies of suicide in later life -: Methodologic considerations and research directions

Later-life suicide is a tragedy that occurs worldwide. Often it is preventable. Here, the authors summarize an international workshop where they review four research approaches to studying putative risk factors: epidemiologic studies of suicidal behaviours, clinic-based follow-up studies, studies of suicide attempters, and psychological autopsy studies. They provide brief descriptions of the approaches, examples of questions best addressed by each approach, and their weakness and limitations; they also recommend promising areas for the future research and propose opportunities for research that could be conducted cross-nationally.