Attitudes among Elderly towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine use as a Suicide Prevention Program in Korea: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Introduction: Suicide among Korean elderly persons continues to be a major issue, with most suicides being in the over 65 years old demographic population. It has the highest suicide rate of all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries and ranking 31 st out of 38 member nations in terms of overall life satisfaction. It is well known that depression is the psychiatric diagnosis most strongly associated with suicide; therefore, the aim of this research was to explore how to address depression using Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) among senior citizens.