Correlates of Suicide Attempts and Ideation in Schizophrenia

A group of 118 patients with a hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia was reviewd. The incidence of suicide attempts was significantly correlated with more frequent past psychiatric admissions, more frequent past diagnoses of schizophrenia, & poor work function. It was found that the apparent relationships could be spurious or based on a reversed causal sequence; for example, suicide attempts are likely to be followed by psychiatric admissions. (15 refs)