Tríada Crítica en la Vejez: Depresión, Conducta Suicida Y Abuso en el Adulto Mayor

In recent decades, Latin American countries have experienced an accelerated process of population aging. Increased life expectancy, together with changes in family and labor structures, has shaped new realities for older adults. However, this demographic progress has not always translated into higher levels of protection, recognition, and care. On the contrary, old age continues to be associated with stereotypes of dependency, uselessness, or burden, which contribute to the invisibilization of psychological suffering and various forms of violence inflicted upon individuals at this stage of the life cycle. Within this context, depression, suicidal ideation and behavior, and elder abuse emerge as issues of high clinical, social, and ethical relevance. Available evidence indicates that rates of clinically significant depressive symptoms among older adults can be high, and that even subthreshold conditions are associated with substantial deterioration in functioning, physical health, and quality of life. Moreover, the relationship between depression in old age, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts has been consistently documented, making these phenomena priorities for mental health research and intervention. Elder abuse, in turn, has been identified as a key risk factor for the onset or worsening of depression and for the emergence of thoughts of death and hopelessness. Recent studies have shown that psychological and less visible forms of abuse—such as verbal and emotional maltreatment—can have particularly harmful effects on the well-being of older adults, impairing their quality of life and increasing depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. These findings underscore the need for robust social protection systems capable of preventing abuse and ensuring comprehensive care for victims. Despite progress in this field, significant gaps persist within Spanish-speaking contexts. On the one hand, research explicitly linking elder abuse with suicide risk remains limited, even though multiple studies have demonstrated that older adults who have experienced abuse face a significantly higher risk of suicidal ideation and behavior than those who have not been maltreated. On the other hand, the development and validation of specific instruments to assess elder abuse in Spanish-speaking older populations are still incipient, hindering timely detection and the generation of comparable data across countries. This book arises precisely from the need to integrate, within a single volume, the available theoretical, empirical, and normative knowledge on depression, suicidal ideation, and elder abuse, with particular emphasis on the Latin American context. Its purpose is not merely to describe problems, but to offer a comprehensive framework that allows for an understanding of how these phenomena intersect and mutually reinforce one another, serving as a foundation for the design of prevention, assessment, and intervention strategies that are more sensitive to the c.