Suicide during clozapine treatment: a case report

The risk of suicide among patients with schizophrenia is greater than that in the general population. Although clozapine, along with its other significant features, has been reported to decrease suicidality and suicide rate among schizophrenia patients, physicians should remain vigilant for general risk factors of suicide in patients with schizophrenia during a treatment course and assess them carefully. Awareness of the effect of the illness, a sense of inadequacy to achieve goals, a change in the course of the illness, an improvement after relapse and a proposed discharge from the hospital in the near future are factors that should be noted especially within these general risk factors for suicide. In this case report, we presented a schizophrenia patient with several risk factors who committed suicide during clozapine treatment. Risk factors prominent in this case including increased awareness after improvement in chronic state, planned discharge in the near future, and the notion of reduced suicidality in schizophrenia patients during clozapine treatment are discussed in this article based on the literature and the case.