Pharmacotherapy and suicide risk in schizophrenia.

The authors examined drug prescribing patterns and incidence of side effects in schizophrenic patients who committed suicide as compared with a matched control group. The groups did not differ in type of drug prescribed, though patients in the suicide group received significantly higher doses of fluphenazine enanthate. Extrapyramidal reactions occurred more frequently among the patients in the suicide group in the thirty days preceding suicide, and autonomic side effects less frequently, than in control patients for a corresponding period prior to discharge. The authors conclude that the probability of suicide is not related to the type of drug prescribed.