Themselves Too: A Review of Risk Factors for Suicide

Suicide rates among schizophrenic individuals are disturbingly high. At present, suicide is the number one cause of premature death among schizophrenics, with 10 to 13 percent killing themselves. Recent studies place the risk of suidde for persons with schizophrenia at a level compa-rable to that for persons with affec-tive disorder. Depression, especially the symptom of self-reported or per-ceived hopelessness, is an important comorbidity factor in assessing this risk. Young white schizophrenic men with high levels of premorbid func-tioning and high expectations are at particularly high risk. Schizophrenic women, unlike women in the general population, behave more like men when it comes to choosing suicide. This article reviews recent studies reporting suicide rates and risk fac-tors for suicide among schizophrenic patients. Current issues concerning the prediction, prevention, and treat-ment of suiddality among persons with schizophrenia are also discussed. Affective disorder is well known for conveying an increased risk for sui-cide. Guze and Robins (1970) esti-mated that 15 percent of patients with a major affective disorder com-mit suicide and that the risk for pa-tients with primary affective disor-ders is over 30 times greater than the risk for the general population. How-ever, the high risk of suicide among persons with schizophrenia has re-ceived less public attention, and only relatively recently has depression, and especially its psychological fea-tures, been widely recognized as an important comorbidity factor in the increased risk for suicide among thi