Relationship to Psychiatric Illness
• Psychological autopsies in completed suicides confirm
that over 90% have a diagnosable psychiatric illness.
• Life-time mortality due to suicide in previously
hospitalized patients are high: unipolar depression (15%);
bipolar disorder (15-20%); alcoholics (18%);
schizophrenics (10-15%); and borderline and antisocial
personality disorders (5-10%).
• Comorbidity increases risk.