Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:08:11.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Attempted Suicide in Chronic Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Alec Roy
Affiliation:
Neurosciences Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 20205
Anne Mazonson
Affiliation:
Neurosciences Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 20205
David Pickar
Affiliation:
Neurosciences Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 20205

Summary

In a consecutive series of 127 chronic schizophrenics admitted to hospital, 70 (55.1 per cent) had attempted suicide. When compared with the chronic schizophrenics who had not attempted suicide, significantly more of the attempters had had a major depressive episode (45.7 per cent) and had received antidepressant medication (65.7 per cent). They also had histories of significantly more psychiatric admissions (a mean of 5.4 compared with 3.6). These findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Goldney, R. & Pilowsky, I. (1980) Depression in young women who have attempted suicide. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 14, 203–11.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. & Hope, K. (1974) The Social Grading of Occupation. A New Approach and Scale, pp. 134–43. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Newson-Smith, J. & Hirsch, S. (1980) Psychiatric symptoms in self-poisoning patients. Chapter 9 in The Suicide Syndrome, ed. Farmer, R. and Hirsch, S. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Planansky, K. & Johnson, R. (1973) Clinical setting and motivation in suicidal attempts of schizophrenics. Acta Psychiatria Scandinavica, 49, 680–90.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1980) Depression in chronic paranoid schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 138–9.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1981) Depression in the course of chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 296300.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1982) Suicide in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 41, 171–7.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria for a Selected Group of Functional Disorders. New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. (1974) The epidemiology of suicide attempts, 1960–1971. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 737–46.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.