Risk factors for suicide behaviors in the observational schizophrenia outpatient health outcomes (SOHO) study

doi:10.1186/1471-244X-12-83

BMC Psychiatry. 2012; 12: 83.

Published online 2012 July 19. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-12-83

PMCID: PMC3413583

Risk factors for suicide behaviors in the observational schizophrenia outpatient health outcomes (SOHO) study

Roberto Brugnoli,¹ Diego Novick,² Josep Maria Haro,³ Andrea Rossi,⁴ Marco Bortolomasi,⁵ Sonia Frediani,⁴ and Giuseppe Borgherini^6,⁷

¹Italian Foundation for the study of Schizophrenia, Rome, Italy

²Eli Lilly and Company, Windlesham, Surrey, UK

³Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, CIBERSAM, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

⁴Medical Department, Eli Lilly, Florence, Italy

⁵Psychiatric Dept. “Villa S. Chiara” Nursing home, Verona, Italy

⁶Affective Disorders Unit, Lime Tree Park Nursing Home, Villa di Teolo (Padova), Italy

⁷Affective Disorders Unit, Casa Di Cura Parco dei Tigli, via Monticello 1, Villa di Teolo, 35037, Padova, Italy

Corresponding author.

Roberto Brugnoli: rbrugnoli/at/tin.it; Diego Novick: novick_diego/at/lilly.com; Josep Maria Haro: jmharo/at/comb.cat; Andrea Rossi: rossi_andrea_a/at/lilly.com; Marco Bortolomasi: masimarco254/at/vodafone.it; Sonia Frediani: sfreddi67/at/libero.it; Giuseppe Borgherini: f.cavagnis/at/hotmail.it

Received August 3, 2011; Accepted July 19, 2012.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

To identify risk factors for suicide using data from a large, 3-year, multinational follow-up study of schizophrenia (SOHO study).

Methods

Baseline characteristics of 8,871 adult patients with schizophrenia were included in a logistic regression post-hoc analysis comparing patients who attempted and/or committed suicide during the study with those who did not.

Results

384 (4.3%) patients attempted or committed suicide. Completed suicides were 27 (0.3%). The significant risk factors for suicide behaviors were previous suicidality, depressive symptoms, prolactin-related adverse events, male gender and history of hospitalization for schizophrenia.

Conclusions

In view of the observational design of the study and the post-hoc nature of the analysis, the identified risk factors should be confirmed by ad-hoc specifically designed studies.

Keywords: Suicide, Schizophrenia, Observational study

Articles from BMC Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of
BioMed Central