Suicide rates worldwide are highest in elderly people compared to younger ages. The recognition of risk factors for late life suicide may be crucial, since one in four attempts is consummated. In this context, pain has been identified as a major event raising the probability for suicide in elders although very little research has examined this association.

To conduct a systematic review to examine whether pain is a risk factor for suicidal behaviour (suicide ideation/attempt/suicide) in elderly people.

The Cochrane Collaboration's guidelines and PRISMA statement were used. The electronic databases considered were MEDLINE, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus and PsycARTICLES. Search terms were “pain”, “suicide*” and “elderly”. Studies that assessed the relation between pain and suicidal behavior among people aged ≥ 60 years were included.

Of the 2655 references founded, only 41 articles met the inclusion criteria. Most of the quantitative studies concluded that there is a relationship between pain and late life suicidal ideation, in particular severe and chronic pain. Physical or psychological pain was also reported as the cause of attempting suicide in two studies and was considered an important risk factor for committed suicide in eight of them.

The results suggest that pain is a risk factor for suicidal behaviour in elderly people, especially suffering from severe and chronic pain, which are in accordance with previous reviews in this field. Future studies are needed to clarify this association and highlight about the importance of pain in suicide prevention initiatives for elders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.