Table 1 summarizes subjects' characteristics. There were no differences between cases and controls in age, gender or rural versus urban residence. Compared to individuals with schizophrenia who died by accident, those who died by suicide were more likely to have had a greater mean effect of negative life events in the prior year-despite having a similar number of chronic and acute negative life events. There were no differences between the groups in the age of onset of schizophrenia, in the proportion who had a positive family history for psychosis or depression or in the proportion who had been treated with antipsychotics or antidepressants in the month before death.