Abstract

Suicide happens in about 10% cases of schizophrenia, however,it remains poorly understood. Both positive and negative symptoms along with comorbidities like depression play an important role in suicide in schizophrenia. Hence it is prudent to study prevalence of suicidal ideation in patients with schizophrenia with a view to reduce the mortality. Aim of the study o study the prevalence of suicidal ideations among patients with  Schizophrenia and to study association with socio-demographic profile and clinical correlates  if any.
Material and methods: This study included 60 consecutive patients diagnosed as schizophrenia  as per ICD-10. Socio-demographic data was collected ,Positive and Negative Scale for  Schizophrenia (PANSS), Modified Suicide Intent Scale and Calgary Depression Scale were  applied on study population. The data was statistically analysed, chi-square and t-tests were  applied. A significance level of p<0.05 was accepted for all analyses. RESULTS: The prevalence of suicide ideations was 41.67% in schizophrenia. The mean age of onset,  31.23 years. There was a significant association with unemployment and illiteracy. The  mean Duration of illness of patients with suicidal ideation was 2.62 years and mean duration  of untreated illness was 1.76 years. There was significant association of suicide ideations  with both positive and negative symptoms and depression.
Conclusion: An early path to  care and treatment with early recognition of relevant signs and symptoms by clinicians and  overall improvement in socio-demographic statistics like literacy levels and employment  harmonized with better community-level awareness could help us significantly decrease  mortality due to suicide in schizophrenia.