Depression represents the single most important cause of suicide among people with schizophrenia. Most persons with schizophrenia who commit suicide do so within the first ten years of their illness. Those who are at the highest risk of attempting suicide have; a remitting and relapsing course, good insight, a poor response to medication, are socially isolated, hopeless about the future, and have a gross discrepancy between their earlier achievements in life and their current level of function.

Any patient with these characteristics and associated depression should be considered at high risk for suicide