Suicidal tendencies in Schizophrenia patients

Abstract

Introduction Suicide is one of the most frequent causes of death in schizophrenia patients, but the low insight in this pathology makes it difficult to identify persons at risk. The clinical picture of schizophrenia includes a wide variety of signs and symptoms, which make it hard to properly assess suicidal ideation. Objectives Our study was aimed at comparing tendencies among the clinical presentation and sociodemographic factors of schizophrenic patients with and without suicide attempts in their medical history. Methods We analysed the clinical data of 60 patients admitted to the Psychiatry Clinic of Timisoara with the diagnosis of Schizophrenia during 2020-2021. The PANNS-R scale was used for every patient, and each item was compared to the clinical data gathered. Results A positive history of suicide attempts was corelated to blunted affect, stereotyped thinking, lack of spontanety and flow of conversation, somatic concern, tension, unsual tought content, lack of judgment and insight. Total negative symptoms were correlated with psychiatric family history. Conclusions Considering a history of suicide attempts is a risk factor for suicide, more studies are needed to evaluate patients with such a history in order to identify the constelation of risk factors with a high predictibility value for suicide. This could help implement prophylactic measures in clinical practice that would decrease suicidal behaviour in schizophrenia. Disclosure No significant relationships.