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The risk for suicide in psychosis patients has been debated. To ascertain the best estimate, researchers followed all 2723 inpatients and outpatients with a first episode of psychosis identified over 40 years in three U.K. areas. The investigators confirmed diagnoses from case records and causes of death from a national database and death certificates (mean follow-up, 11.5 years; 2488 patients with complete follow-up data). Diagnoses were schizophrenia (54%), schizoaffective disorder (14%), psychotic bipolar disorder (10%), psychotic depression (6%), and “other” (16%).
Fifty-three patients died by suicide (case fatality rate, 1.9%). The suicide rate for the entire follow-up was 169.7 per 100,000 person-years. The median time to suicide was 5…