Long-term suicide risk in schizophrenia spectrum psychoses: survival analysis by gender

Patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychoses have a high risk of suicide. Suicide is more frequent in men. Our objective in this study was to investigate the long term suicide risk in schizophrenia spectrum psychoses in relation to gender. A cohort from 1973 to 1987 of 385 schizophrenia spectrum psychoses inpatients in Stockholm were followed up for cause of death in 2006. Twenty-six suicides (6.8%) occurred during the follow up of 24.4 years. There was no significant difference in suicide mortality between men (6.5%) and women (6.9%). There was no gender difference in death from other causes. These results indicate that patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychoses have a high long term suicide risk in both men and women. The high suicide risk in female patients deserves further research attention.