Does Risperidone Reduce Concomitant Substance Abuse in Cases of Schizophrenia?

We used the of fi cial data, with causes of death that were ex trapo lated from na tional mor tal ity sta tis tics at the Ital ian Na tional Sta tis ti cal In sti tute (IS TAT). The re sult ing rates rep re sent the number of sui cides per 1 mil lion in habi tants of the same sex and age group. The data were then sub di vided and com pared with each of the na tional macro ar eas: north ern, cen tral, and south ern It aly. The sui cide rate for males in the group aged 15 to 19 years in It aly in creased from 27.30 per 1 mil lion in 1969 to 48.29 per 1 mil lion in 1994. The rate, how ever, in fe males de creased from 23.18 per 1 mil lion in 1969 to 10.80 per 1 mil lion in 1994. While ob serv ing the sui cide trend in the 3 macro ar eas, we noted that for males in the north the rate rose from 37.10 to 57.09, in the cen tre from 22.94 to 38.18, and in the south from 19.49 to 42.46. For fe males, how ever, in the north, the rate de creased from 19.09 to 11.10, in the cen tre from 14.91 to 3.08, and in the south from 30.89 to 13.66.