Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Suicide is one of the main premature causes of death in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and suicidality in violent offenders with schizophrenia who have been sentenced to psychiatric treatment after committing violent cr...
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Diagnostics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/10/12/1091 |
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| author | Miriam Sánchez-Sansegundo Irene Portilla-Tamarit María Rubio-Aparicio Natalia Albaladejo-Blazquez Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo Rosario Ferrer-Cascales Ana Zaragoza-Martí |
| author_facet | Miriam Sánchez-Sansegundo Irene Portilla-Tamarit María Rubio-Aparicio Natalia Albaladejo-Blazquez Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo Rosario Ferrer-Cascales Ana Zaragoza-Martí |
| author_sort | Miriam Sánchez-Sansegundo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Suicide is one of the main premature causes of death in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and suicidality in violent offenders with schizophrenia who have been sentenced to psychiatric treatment after committing violent crimes. We examined the neurocognitive functioning of a sample of 61 violent offenders, most of them murderers with schizophrenia who were classified as suicide attempters (<i>n</i> = 26) and non-attempters (<i>n</i> = 35). We compared the neurocognitive functioning of both groups using a neuropsychological battery. Suicide attempters showed similar performance to non-attempters in a neuropsychological test across all domains of cognitive functioning, memory, attention, verbal fluency, and executive functioning. However, after controlling for demographic and clinical variables, suicide attempters performed better than non-attempters in two planning-related tasks: the Tower of London (<i>p</i> < 0.01) and the Zoo Map (<i>p</i> < 0.01). Suicide attempters were also characterized as having more family histories of suicidality and as displaying more depressive symptoms and negative symptoms of psychopathology on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scale. These results suggest that suicide attempters have a greater ability to formulate plans and initiate goals directed at making a suicide attempt. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:03:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23cdd8f2487043469893fb73ca18be83 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4418 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:03:41Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Diagnostics |
| spelling | doaj.art-23cdd8f2487043469893fb73ca18be832023-11-21T00:49:11ZengMDPI AGDiagnostics2075-44182020-12-011012109110.3390/diagnostics10121091Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum DisordersMiriam Sánchez-Sansegundo0Irene Portilla-Tamarit1María Rubio-Aparicio2Natalia Albaladejo-Blazquez3Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo4Rosario Ferrer-Cascales5Ana Zaragoza-Martí6Department of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Health Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainDepartment of Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, SpainSuicide is one of the main premature causes of death in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and suicidality in violent offenders with schizophrenia who have been sentenced to psychiatric treatment after committing violent crimes. We examined the neurocognitive functioning of a sample of 61 violent offenders, most of them murderers with schizophrenia who were classified as suicide attempters (<i>n</i> = 26) and non-attempters (<i>n</i> = 35). We compared the neurocognitive functioning of both groups using a neuropsychological battery. Suicide attempters showed similar performance to non-attempters in a neuropsychological test across all domains of cognitive functioning, memory, attention, verbal fluency, and executive functioning. However, after controlling for demographic and clinical variables, suicide attempters performed better than non-attempters in two planning-related tasks: the Tower of London (<i>p</i> < 0.01) and the Zoo Map (<i>p</i> < 0.01). Suicide attempters were also characterized as having more family histories of suicidality and as displaying more depressive symptoms and negative symptoms of psychopathology on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scale. These results suggest that suicide attempters have a greater ability to formulate plans and initiate goals directed at making a suicide attempt.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/10/12/1091suicideneurocognitionschizophreniaoffendersneuropsychology |
| spellingShingle | Miriam Sánchez-Sansegundo Irene Portilla-Tamarit María Rubio-Aparicio Natalia Albaladejo-Blazquez Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo Rosario Ferrer-Cascales Ana Zaragoza-Martí Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders Diagnostics suicide neurocognition schizophrenia offenders neuropsychology |
| title | Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders |
| title_full | Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders |
| title_fullStr | Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders |
| title_short | Neurocognitive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior in Violent Offenders with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders |
| title_sort | neurocognitive functioning and suicidal behavior in violent offenders with schizophrenia spectrum disorders |
| topic | suicide neurocognition schizophrenia offenders neuropsychology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/10/12/1091 |
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