Suicide in schizophrenia and conditions to watch out for

Among schizophrenia patients, suicidal tendencies are quite common. Therefore, if the patient seems to be talking about suicide or has made any sort of an attempt in doing so, help form a professional should be sorted immediately. Among schizophrenia patients, suicide is more frequent than the average tendency to commit suicide, especially among the generation of young males. Sadly enough, schizophrenia and suicide are not easy predicted.

With a 10% suicide schizophrenia rate, and a 40% attempted suicide rate, for schizophrenia patients, it is quite obvious that the patients should be carefully handled and monitored while they are suffering the symptoms. What is extremely shocking though is that only 2% of these suicides take place when the patient begins to hear his/her own voices. People who have a faint idea about their disease or are under the pressure of performing well are at a greater risk.

Generally suicides take place when the patient is experiencing the upswing order. This is the time when the symptoms have just subsided, or have almost subsided, and the patient is having a cleared view of self and the situation around. This is when they might begin to feel helpless and start contemplating suicide. Thus when a patient just gets discharged form the hospital, the family members and the doctors must make a proper care plan for the patient, to help them avoid feeling that way.

Generally the patients do not tend to discuss their paranoid schizophrenia suicide thoughts with others. A schizophrenic patient might be able to hide it well enough from the doctors and close family members too. However, in case they do share their feeling in the remotest of way, it should be taken up very seriously. Mentioning suicide by the patient only means that somewhere deep inside they are actually seeking your help. It is very important that the issue is discussed directly with a lot of tact with the patient. Other important conditions to watch out for are, if the patient seems to be silent collecting pills, or weapons of self destruction etc, that could prompt them to suicide of they start feeling the urge to.

Often the patients contemplating suicide also tend to start writing dark poems, or thinking and talking about death, etc. It is also sometimes dangerous if they, after a particularly severe round of depression suddenly begin to act jovial without any valid reason. They could be just masking their true feelings.

Suicides are often prompted by what is known as ‘copy ct effect’. The patient hears about a suicide and begins to feel motivated to do the same. The most high level risk patients are those who do not get to have much interaction with their family or close ones. It is thus very important to keep in regular touch with them, keep encouraging them and letting the share their feelings as much as possible. Giving them positive hopes by talking about the fast developing science and technology that should be soon available for handling the disease better is a good idea.