Mentally ill more apt to commit suicide

LONDON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- People with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are 12 times more likely than others to commit suicide, researchers in Britain say.

Dr. Rina Dutta, a research fellow and honorary consultant psychiatrist at King's Health Partners, says the rate of suicide was highest in the first year following diagnosis of psychotic disorders, and that high risk persisted -- remaining four times greater than the general population 10 years after diagnosis.

"It's well known that people who commit suicide often suffer serious mental health problems, but it's surprising that the risk they face remains so high 10 years or more after first diagnosis. Putting a figure on it like this helps doctors to understand the extent of risk some of their patients face," Dutta says in a statement.

The researcher studied almost 3,000 patients in London, Nottingham, Dumfries and Galloway who suffered their first psychotic illness from 1965 to 2004. The patients were tracked after an average follow-up of 11.5 years and their death certificates were analyzed.

People with psychotic disorders experience disturbed thoughts, feelings, mood and behaviors and these conditions tend to strike when people are young and affect about 2 percent of the British population, Dutta says.

The findings are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.