Background: Epidemiological and clinical studies have found a significant association between smoking and suicidal behaviour.
Method: 334 outpatients with DSM-IV diagnosis of unipolar major depression, bipolar (I+II) disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and pure panic disorder were interviewed regarding to their smoking habits and previous suicide attempts.
Results: With the exception of panic disorder patients, the rate of prior suicide attempt(s) was much higher among current and lifetime smokers than among never smokers in all diagnostic groups, but the difference was statistically significant only for lifetime smoker unipolar depressives and for current and lifetime smoker schizophrenics.
Limitations: Age, social class and alcohol/caffeine consumption was not controlled and dependent vs nondependent smokers were not distinguished.
Conclusions: The findings support previous results on the strong relationship between smoking and suicidal behaviour in psychiatric (particularly major depressive and schizophrenic) patients.