Schizophrenia behind nearly 12% of suicide cases: Study
Toronto, June 23 : Nearly 12 per cent of all suicide cases involves a diagnosis of schizophrenia, which affects one's ability to think clearly, finds a study.
The findings suggested that those with schizophrenia who died were also more likely to be younger, with one in five between the ages of 25 and 34 compared to just one in 10 in the non-schizophrenia group.
"This is shocking. We need to emphasise the importance of assessing the risk of suicide in younger patients with schizophrenia, particularly early in the course of illness," said lead author Juveria Zaheer from Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's (CAMH) in Canada.
In the study, published in the journal Schizophrenia Research, the team analysed data from 5,650 suicide cases in Ontario, Canada.
They found that, 663 cases that is 11.7 per cent of the entire sample had schizophrenia-related diagnosis.
While the study is mainly focused on the population from Ontario in Canada, the "finding points to an opportunity to intervene, and raises the question of whether there's a role for a suicide risk assessment and management with every young person with schizophrenia," Zaheer added.
Assessments may not be top of mind among clinicians, who are focused on managing their patients' hallucinations and delusions, she notes.
But because younger people with schizophrenia are engaged with the health care system, clinicians do need to be more vigilant about the risk of suicide in these patients.
However, the reasons why a person takes their life can vary substantially, Zaheer said.
Suicide risks might be different for those with schizophrenia compared to those with other illnesses, and looking at patterns across a population is one way to identify these risks, the research suggested.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
