Abstract
Risk of suicidal behaviour (SB) in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) is a major concern, particularly in early stages of the illness, when suicide accounts for a high number of premature deaths. Although some risk factors for SB in SSD are well understood, the extent to which personality traits may affect this risk remains unclear, which may have implications for prevention. We conducted a systematic review of previous studies indexed in MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase examining the relationship between personality traits and SB in samples of patients with SSD. Seven studies fulfilled predetermined selection criteria. Harm avoidance, passive-dependent, schizoid and schizotypal personality traits increased the risk of SB, while self-directedness, cooperativeness, excluding persistence and self-transcendence acted as protective factors. Although only seven studies were retrieved from three major databases after applying predetermined selection criteria, we found some evidence to support that personality issues may contribute to SB in patients with SSD. Personality traits may therefore become part of routine suicide risk assessment and interventions targeting these personality-related factors may contribute to prevention of SB in SSD.
Highlights
Suicide is a major public health issue, which accounts for almost one million deaths every year across the world [1]
Passive-dependent personality traits associated with first suicide attempt occurred 6-month after FEP
Despite the low number of selected studies, which may result in erroneously accepting the null hypothesis [33], we found some evidence of the association between personality traits and suicidal behaviour (SB) in spectrum disorders (SSD), which provides further support for this finding
Summary
Suicide is a major public health issue, which accounts for almost one million deaths every year across the world [1]. It is of major concern that suicide rates worldwide are very likely to significantly increase in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic [2,3,4]. COVID-19 prevention measures are based on so-called physical distancing [7], which, not inevitably [2], is likely to increase social isolation levels, a major suicide risk factor [8]. Suicide prevention should become a public health priority in the post-COVID-19 pandemic years, which will require funding, significant effort, a multidisciplinary approach and international collaboration [9,10,11]
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