Citation

Nieto E, Vieta E, Gastó C, Vallejo J, Cirera E. Compr. Psychiatry 1992; 33(6): 384-387.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Clinic i Provincial de Barcelona School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1451451

Abstract

A retrospective study was conducted that included all patients who in the previous 6 years had required admission to our hospital for medical reasons following attempted suicide (N = 253). Those diagnosed as schizophrenic (n = 43) in accordance with DSM-III-R criteria were compared with the other nonschizophrenic suicide attempters. Schizophrenic patients were significantly different in that they were younger and generally unmarried, usually used violent methods, made more attempts while in a psychiatric center, and presented a lower incidence of concurrent organic illness than the nonschizophrenics; almost all of them were chronic. A large majority (80%) showed delusional and hallucinatory symptoms at the time of the attempt. In contrast, depressive symptoms were noted in an appreciably lower percentage of subjects than that in other studies of suicidal behavior in schizophrenics.

Language: en