Hettige Nuwan C, Bani-Fatemi Ali, Kennedy James L, De Luca Vincenzo
Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 1A8, Canada.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 250 College Street, M5T 1R8, Toronto, Canada.
BMC Psychiatry. 2017 Feb 9;17(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-1180-3.
Suicide is a leading cause of mortality among those afflicted by schizophrenia. Previous studies demonstrated that the stressors associated with immigration may lead to an onset of schizophrenia and suicide separately in susceptible individuals. However, no studies have shown whether immigration may lead to suicidal behaviour for individuals with schizophrenia. Our study proposes that an individual's geographical ancestry, ethnicity or migration status may be predictive of suicide risk in schizophrenia.
In a sample of 276 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, we conducted cross-sectional assessments to collect clinical information. Self-identified ethnicity and suicide history were collected through self-report questionnaires and interview-based scales. Ancestry was identified using 292 genetic markers from HapMap. Migrants were classified as those who immigrated to Canada during their lifetime. Using a regression analysis, we tested whether a history of migration, ethnicity or geographical ancestry were predictive of a history of suicide attempts.
Our analysis failed to demonstrate a significant relationship between suicide history and migration, ethnicity or ancestry. However, ethnicity appears to be significantly associated with the number of psychiatric hospitalizations in our sample.
Ethnicity and migration history are not predictive of previous suicide attempts. Ethnicity may be an important demographic factor affecting access to mental health resources and frequency of hospitalizations.
自杀是精神分裂症患者死亡的主要原因。先前的研究表明，与移民相关的压力源可能会分别导致易感个体患上精神分裂症和自杀。然而，尚无研究表明移民是否会导致精神分裂症患者出现自杀行为。我们的研究提出，个体的地理血统、种族或移民身份可能预示着精神分裂症患者的自杀风险。
在一个包含276名精神分裂症谱系障碍参与者的样本中，我们进行了横断面评估以收集临床信息。通过自我报告问卷和基于访谈的量表收集自我认定的种族和自杀史。使用来自国际人类基因组单体型图计划（HapMap）的292个基因标记确定血统。移民被定义为那些在其一生中移民到加拿大的人。通过回归分析，我们测试了移民史、种族或地理血统是否能预测自杀未遂史。
我们的分析未能证明自杀史与移民、种族或血统之间存在显著关系。然而，在我们的样本中，种族似乎与精神病住院次数显著相关。
种族和移民史不能预测既往自杀未遂情况。种族可能是影响获得心理健康资源和住院频率的一个重要人口统计学因素。
