A study of suicide in schizophrenic in-patients

Abstract

A retrospective analysis of the clinical records of 53 schizophrenic in-patients who committed suicide, and the same number of matched control subjects, was carried out using a larger set of demographic, psychosocial and clinical variables. Univariate analysis of the data indicated an early disturbed psychosocial adjustment, more severe mental illness, unsatisfactory social situation, and more frequent suicidal behaviour in the suicide group. Suicide in schizophrenic in-patients thus appears to be closely connected with a particularly incapacitating form of the illness and its deleterious psychosocial consequences.