[Suicidal behavior of schizophrenic patients in a psychiatric hospital]

Discussing the increase of inpatient-suicides in psychiatric hospitals affords an exact assessment of suicidality among schizophrenic patients, because this subgroup shows a great discrepancy between assumed actual suicidality and suicidal behavior. In a cros-sectional study we assessed the "Basissuizidalität" in the adult wards of the Psychiatric State Hospital of Weissenau (1986). In this article we report the results concerning the schizophrenic inpatients. Like other studies we found a lower suicidality of schizophrenic patients compared with other subgroups. We try to examine and interpret this result and correlate it to the assessed data in the area of aggressive behavior. Suicidal patients globally and suicidal schizophrenic patients specially are showing in a significantly higher frequency verbal aggression, aggressive and indirectly self-destructive behavior. Consequences for diagnosis and therapy of suicidal schizophrenic patients are discussed.