Psychiatric comorbidity may not predict suicide during and after hospitalization. A nested case-control study with blinded raters.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the differential impact of DSM-IV axis-I and axis-II disorders on completed suicide and to study if psychiatric comorbidity increases the risk of suicide in currently and previously hospitalized psychiatric patients.

METHODS: A nested case-control design based on case notes from 136 suicides and 166 matched controls. All cases and controls were rediagnosed using the SCID-CV for axis-I and the DSM-IV criteria for axis-II disorders and the inter-rater reliability was satisfactory. Raters were blind to the case and control status and the original hospital diagnoses.

RESULTS: Depressive disorders and bipolar disorders were associated with an increased risk of suicide. No such effect was found for comorbidity between axis-I disorders and for comorbidity between axis-I and axis-II disorders.

LIMITATIONS: Psychiatric diagnoses, although made using a structured and criteria-based approach, was based on information recorded in case notes. Axis-II comorbidity could only be investigated at an aggregated level.

CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric comorbidity did not predict suicide in this sample. Mood disorders did, however, increase the risk significantly independent of history of previous suicide attempts. Both findings can inform identification and treatment of patients at high risk for completed suicide.