Suicidal Behavior in Patients with Schizophrenia and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Studies in the Russian Population

Background: suicide is one of the significant causes of death in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). The development of effective methods for the prevention of suicidal behavior is an urgent scientific and practical problem in psychiatric practice. There is known significant variability in rates of suicidal behavior in patients suffering from these diseases, associated with the ethnic, cultural and economic characteristics of different countries. Despite a number of foreign publications devoted to this problem, there is a shortage of correct and up-to-date data on the situation in the Russian population. As a result, assessing the current situation and making forecasts within the framework of building long-term prevention programs is difficult. The aim was to systematize and generalize published results of Russian scientific studies on suicidal behavior in patients with schizophrenia and SSD. Material and Methods: a search for Russian-language articles was carried out in the eLibrary.ru database. When searching for articles, combinations of keywords “schizophrenia”, “schizophrenia spectrum disorders” and “suicidal behavior” were used. Data from foreign studies used for data comparison were obtained by searching the PubMed electronic database using a combination of keywords “meta-analysis”, “mental disorders”; “schizophrenia”, “suicide” in various combinations. Discussion: the analysis of the scientific publications indicates that there are no large-scale studies at the regional or national level aimed at studying suicidal behavior in patients suffering from schizophrenia and SSD in the Russian Federation. The available data are sparse and contradictory, and the level of agreement with data from other populations is not high. A number of important limitations (small sample sizes, controversial study designs) make it difficult to extrapolate the data obtained to the entire Russian population. Conclusions: the use of the results of foreign studies in the Russian population should be done with caution. It seems necessary to conduct large-scale studies of suicidal behavior in patients suffering from schizophrenia and in Russia. The results of such studies will be important and in demand both for scientific research and for practical purposes, primarily for organizing measures and programs to reduce the risk of suicide among patients with schizophrenia and SSD at the regional and national levels.

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