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Suicide and Schizophrenia: an Interplay of Factors

  • Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders (AK Pandurangi, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The main purpose of this review is to elucidate the interplay of various factors in the relationship between suicide and schizophrenia. Suicide and schizophrenia have been interlinked as a symptom, factor in recovery and prognosis, outcome measure and response to psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Many biomarkers have been identified in relation to the two phenomena.

Recent Findings

The analysis of the papers of the last 5 years (2015–2019) and till date has revealed studies looking at outcomes in relation to suicide, biological markers to determine the protection from and occurrence of suicide in schizophrenia and demographic factors that play a role in the occurrence of suicide in patients with schizophrenia.

Summary

Suicide is a common occurrence in patients with schizophrenia and must be studied further in diverse populations of the disorder to help determine exact relationships between these two variables that will aid in clinical recovery, better outcome and improve prognosis.

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References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis were performed by all authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by all authors, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Avinash De Sousa.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical collection on Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders section

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De Sousa, A., Shah, B. & Shrivastava, A. Suicide and Schizophrenia: an Interplay of Factors. Curr Psychiatry Rep 22, 65 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01188-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01188-7

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