Barcelona (EFE).- One in ten young people between the ages of 18 and 35 who suffer a first psychotic episode attempt suicide in the following two years, according to a study carried out by the Mental Health Research Group of the Hospital del Mar Research Institute Medical (IMIM).
The research, published in the journal ‘Psychiatry Research’, has shown that the main risk factors are having made a previous suicide attempt, suffering strong feelings of guilt related to their pathology, appreciating a low quality of life and difficulties in your daily activities.
Individualized follow-up
Given these results, the researchers have recommended setting up early detection programs for people with psychotic symptoms and applying individualized follow-up to those who present the risk factors detected in the study.
As explained by the work coordinator and doctor of the Psychiatry Service and the Hospital del Mar Incipient Psychosis Care Program, Anna Mané, this is one of the “most extensive” investigations of its kind carried out in Spain.
The study has followed nearly 300 patients for two years, with an average age of 25 years, treated in the study and treatment program for the first psychotic episode at Hospital del Mar between 2013 and 2020.
More than 60% of the patients analyzed are male, although the doctors have not detected differences based on the gender of the patients.
In thirty cases, they attempted suicide on one or more occasions during the study period, with almost half of the attempts occurring in the period between the onset of psychotic symptoms and the start of treatment.
“There was an increase between six months and a year after the first outbreak, a fact that is probably a consequence of the breaking of the expectations of the affected people of a quick recovery and return to normal life,” said Mané, who highlighted the importance of early detection to shorten the time that patients start to have symptoms and receive treatment.
More knowledge for early detection
To achieve this, it is necessary “more knowledge of psychosis, also among general practitioners, health agents and other agents involved, such as schools, which would help early detection, improve prognosis and reduce suicide attempts and other risk situations”, pointed out the psychiatrist.
In this sense, the researcher at IMIM-Hospital del Mar and assistant doctor of the Psychiatry Service, Alba Toll-Privat, has indicated that “we have seen that this period is very important, because the longer this time is without treatment with psychotic symptoms , even if they are mild, the worse the evolution of these patients will be and the more it will cost them to return to normality”.
“For this reason, the importance of the programs of first episodes, to be able to detect them as soon as possible and to be able to treat them,” Toll-Privat stressed.
warning signs
The study places as the main risk factors for attempted suicide having made an attempt before the onset of psychotic symptoms, suffering strong feelings of guilt and low functionality in daily life, with a low quality of life.
Warning signs that, according to Mané, “warn that individualized treatments must be applied to patients who have made previous attempts and have depressive symptoms and feelings of guilt.”
The coordinator of the IMIM Mental Health Research Group and head of the Hospital del Mar Psychiatry Service, Víctor Pérez, stressed that “the study’s findings indicate the importance of providing adequate detection and intervention to people at high risk of suicide for psychosis”.
“It has been shown – Pérez added – that early interventions aimed at these patients reduce the suicide figures” which, according to estimates, mean the death of some 700,000 people every year in the world.
In Spain some 4,000 people committed suicide in 2021.