Schizophrenia and suicide in a north Swedish isolate, 1890-1980.
The epidemiological and genetic investigation of schizophrenic psychoses over the period 1900-1978 which has been carried out in a specified North Swedish geographical isolate was supplemented with a study of suicides. For the period 1890-1980, a total of 90 suicides have been ascertained. Of these, 54 had at least one schizophrenic relative at a maximum genetic distance of 1/8, while 11 had schizophrenic relatives further removed. It is likely that at least some of these suicides were manifestations of acute and/or undiagnosed psychoses. Thus the previously reported high general morbid risk of schizophrenia in this population (2.7%) would be a rather conservative estimate. On the other hand, the findings would not appreciably change the morbid risk for first-degree relatives of schizophrenic probands.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010375:Pedigree; D012306:Risk; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D013405:Suicide / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013548:Sweden