Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T10:39:49.929Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Depression, Hopelessness and Suicide in Chronic Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Robert E. Drake  and
Paul G. Cotton
Robert E. Drake*
Affiliation:
Community Mental Health Services, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Paul G. Cotton
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School, Medical Director, Pembroke Hospital, Pembroke, Massachusetts, USA
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hospital records for 104 schizophrenic patients, 15 of whom subsequently committed suicide, were rated blindly for individual depressive symptoms comprising DSM III major depressive episode, and for hopelessness. Our results indicate that a large proportion of schizophrenic patients experienced major depressive episodes, and that these can be reliably identified. Presuicidal schizophrenics also experienced depressed mood, but only a minority developed the full syndrome; they typically exhibited the psychological, but not somatic symptoms. The relationship between depression and suicide disappears when hopelessness is taken into account.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 148 , Issue 5 , May 1986 , pp. 554 - 559
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achte, K., Stenbach, A. & Teravainen, H. (1966) On suicides committed during treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 42, 272–284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartko, J. J. & Carpenter, W. T. (1976) On the methods and theory of reliability. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 163, 307–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T. (1967) Depression: Clinical. Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M. & Weissman, A. (1975) Hopelessness and suicidal behavior: an overview. Journal of the American Medical Association. 234, 1146–1149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, A. & Trexler, L. (1974) The measurement of pessimism: The hopelessness scale. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology. 42, 861–865.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beisser, A. & Blanchette, J. (1961) a study of suicides in a mental hospital. Diseases of the Nervous System. 22, 365–369.Google Scholar
Cohen, S., Leonard, C., Farberow, N. & Schneidman, E. (1964) Tranquilizers and suicide in schizophrenic patients. Archives of General Psychiatry. 11, 312–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cotton, P. G., Drake, R. E. & Gates, G. (1985) Suicide among schizophrenics: critical treatment issues. Hospital & Community Psychiatry. 62, 534–536.Google Scholar
Drake, R. E. & Ehrlich, J. (1985) Suicide attempts associated with akathisia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 499–501.Google ScholarPubMed
Drake, R. E., Gates, C., Cotton, P. G. & Whitaker, A. (1984) Suicide among schizophrenics: who is at risk? Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 172, 613–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drake, R. E., Gates, C., Whitaker, A. & Cotton, P. G. (1985) Suicide among schizophrenics: a review. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26, 90–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evenson, R. C., Wood, Nuttall, E. A. & Cho, D. W. (1982) Suicide rates among public mental health patients. Acta Psychlatrica Scandinavica, 66, 254–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (1967) Development of a rating scale for primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 6, 278–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kazdin, A. E., French, N. H., Unis, A. S., Esveldt-Dawson, K. & Sherick, R. B. (1983) Hopelessness, depression, and suicidal intent among psychiatrically disturbed children. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology. 51, 504–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandel, M. R., Severe, J. B., Scholler, N. R., Gelenburg, A. J. & Mieske, M. (1982) Development and prediction of post-psychotic depression in neuroleptic-treated schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry. 39, 197–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, C. P. (1977) Conditions predisposing to suicide. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 164, 231–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Minkoff, K., Bergman, E., Beck, A. T. & Beck, R. (1973) Hopelessness, depression, and attempted suicide. American Journal of Psychiatry. 130, 455–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niskanen, P., Lonnquist, J., Achte, K. et al. (1974) Suicides in a Helsinki psychiatric hospital: 1964–1972. Psychlatrica Fennica. 275–280.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1982) Suicide in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 171–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shear, M. K., Frances, A. & Weiden, P. (1983) Suicide associatied with akathisia and depot fluphenazine treatment. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 3, 235–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siris, S. G., Harmon, G. K. & Endicott, J. (1981) Postpsychotic depressive symptoms in hospitalized schizophrenic patienu. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 1122–1223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sletten, I., Brown, M., Evenson, R. et al. (1972) Suicide in mental hospital patients. Diseases of the Nervous System. 33, 328–334.Google ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research diagnostic criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry. 35, 773–782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stotland, E. (1967) The Psychology of Hope. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Virkkunen, M. (1976) Attitude toward psychiatric treatment before suicide in schizophrenia and paranoid psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 47–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wetzel, R. D., Margulies, T., Davis, R. & Karam, E. (1980) Hopelessness, depression, and suicide. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 41, 159–160.Google ScholarPubMed
Yarden, P. (1974) Observations on suicide in chronic schizophrenics. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 15, 325–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.