Excess mortality by natural causes of Italian schizophrenic patients.
The risk of mortality over a 5- to 8-year period for a total 1-year prevalence cohort of schizophrenic patients extracted by means of the South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register (Italy) was assessed using three methods: (1) case control with both non-psychotic patients and the general population matched for sex and age; (2) indirect standardization using mortality tables; (3) a recently described method using survival tables. All methods yielded an excess mortality associated with schizophrenia, close to the two-fold increase described in other studies, while the survival tables method produced a higher standardized mortality ratio (SMR). The increased SMR did not appear solely attributable to suicide. Most deaths were attributable to natural causes. This is a departure from other recently reported mortality studies. The possible reasons are discussed.
Lesage
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AD
Psychiatric Research Center, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Trapani
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V
Tansella
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M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D015993:Life Tables; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000401:mortality*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012931:Social Environment