Antipsychotics and suicide Antipsicóticos y suicidio

Abstract

The opinions about the relationship between antipsychotics and suicide are controversial due to differences on reported evidence about their specific action. One of the most discussed topics is the increase of depressive symptomatology and the impact of some secondary effects on suicidality, mainly akinesia, akathisia and tardive diskynesia. Another polemical topic is the paradoxical effect due to the decrease of positive symptoms when increasing insight. We performed a critical review of the available literature concerning to the use of antipsychotics in relation to suicide in the context of psychotic and affective disorders. When appraising psychotic disorders, there was no direct evidence to support a reduction in suicide rates when using first-generation antipsychotics, probably due to methodological issues and multifactoriality of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, second-generation antipsychotics could be protective against suicide risk, specifically clozapine, which is considered as