Three different types of clinical suicide.

A total of 149 inpatients were identified who had committed suicide in two Swiss psychiatric institutions in the years 1960-1981. Using Research Diagnostic Criteria, 49 were diagnosed as schizophrenics, 75 as depressives, and 9 as alcoholics. The first two groups were significantly overrepresented and the third one underrepresented when compared with a control sample. There were considerable differences between the individual diagnostic groups of clinical suicides: schizophrenic suicides were characterized by a disturbed early social adjustment, a high degree of later disability and an unfavorable course of their illness, depressive suicides were much less handicapped, although they presented a much higher long-term suicidal potential, and alcoholic suicides demonstrated no signs of suicidal behavior in the clinic and committed suicide unexpectedly after experiencing negative life events. These findings have therapeutic implications.