Schizophr Res 2014; Advance online publication
medwireNews: People with schizophrenia who threaten or attempt suicide have a propensity towards violence, UK researchers believe.
Seena Fazel (University of Oxford) and colleagues studied 1460 adults with schizophrenia who had participated in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE).
Around three-quarters of the participants were male, the mean age at baseline was 40.6 years, and patients were considered moderately ill. During the 18-month study period 8.3% of participants were rated as violent on at least one occasion, 33.7% reported suicidal ideation, 11.1% threatened to commit suicide and 5.8% attempted suicide.
In univariate analysis, suicidal threats and suicidal attempts were both significantly associated with violence in men and women, with hazard ratios ranging from 2.8 to 9.4. Suicidal ideation was not associated with violence, however.
Supposedly has something to do with impulsivity.