Citation

Osmond H, Hoffer A. J. Orthomol. Psychiatry 1999; 14(1): 16-22.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Academy of Orthomolecular Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Follow-up studies of 3,521 patients diagnosed as schizophrenic were examined. These studies were all made during the last twenty-five years. Sixty-two of these patients committed suicide during a follow-up period that averaged less than eight years. This is about twenty times the normal rate of the countries concerned. While the death rate for these patients has dropped sharply during the last twenty years, the suicide rate has not changed. Although suicide seems to be just as frequent in schizophrenia as in the affective psychoses, no text book, and only two papers were found that gave this information, and none of them indicated its significance. This is that suicide from schizophrenia is a major cause of death in adolescence and early adult, life. If our findings are confirmed by others, then steps must surely be taken to reduce this loss of life, both by remedying these omissions in many current texts and by developing better means for early diagnosis, effective treatment and sustained follow-up.

Language: en