@article{ref1,
title="Suicidality in clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia: role of obsessive-compulsive symptoms",
journal="Psychiatry research",
year="2015",
author="Szmulewicz, Alejandro G. and Smith, José M. and Valerio, Marina P.",
volume="230",
number="1",
pages="50-55",
abstract="Patients with schizophrenia have an increased lifetime risk of comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Up to 30% of these patients experience such symptoms and 12% may be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The presence of these symptoms in schizophrenia seems to be associated with poor outcomes including a greater suicidal risk. A subgroup of patients develops this symptomatology after the initiation with Second Generation Antipsychotics (SGA). Also, there is evidence of a causal relationship for this association, particularly for clozapine. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the association of this comorbidity with suicidality in a population of clozapine-medicated schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients (N=65). The prevalence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in our sample was 29.2% (N=19) and the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder was 13.8% (N=9). Significant positive correlations between suicidality and total Y-BOCS score and between Y- BOCS score and depressive symptoms were found. Further analysis indicated that a Y-BOCS score greater or equal than 8 was an independent predictor of suicide attempt during clozapine treatment. Routine screening for this adverse event should be warranted for this population.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0165-1781",
doi="10.1016/j.psychres.2015.07.089",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.07.089"
}