Background: The role of anxiety in late-life suicidal behavior has received relatively little attention. The aim was to explore the association between anxiety symptoms and suicidal feelings in a population sample of 70-year-olds without dementia, and to test whether associations would be independent of depression.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews (N = 560) were carried out by psychiatric nurses and past month symptoms were rated with the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS). The Brief Scale for Anxiety (BSA) was derived from the CPRS to quantify anxiety symptom burden. Past month suicidal feelings were evaluated with the Paykel questions.

Results: Anxiety symptom burden was associated with suicidal feelings and the association remained after adjusting for major depression. One individual BSA item (Inner tension) was independently associated with suicidal feelings in a multivariate regression model. The association did not remain, however, in a final model in which depression symptoms replaced depression diagnosis.

Conclusions: Results from this population study suggest an association between anxiety and suicidal feelings in older adults. The role of anxiety and depression symptoms needs further clarification in the study of suicidal behavior in late life.