White males over age 85 complete suicide at almost six times the national average. Elder suicide is associated with depression and factors causing depression, e.g., chronic illness, physical impairment, unrelieved pain, financial stress, loss and grief, social isolation, and alcoholism.
Depression is tied to low serotonin levels.
Serotonin, which decreases with aging, is a neurotransmitter which limits self-destructive behavior. Putting affairs in order, giving things away, or making changes in wills. Stock-piling medication or obtaining other lethal means. Most elder suicide victims saw a doctor within a month of their deaths. Physicians may not recognize such patients as depressed.