Patients with schizophrenia seem to have a higher mortality and a lower life expectancy compared to the general population.

To estimate the rate of mortality at a psychiatric hospital and to identify the causes and risk factors of these deaths.

A retrospective study was conducted based on the medical records of patients who had died during the time period from January 2007 to March 2012 at the 250-bed Psychiatric Hospital of Tripolis in Greece.

A total of 39 deaths were recorded (mean annual mortality: 1.7 per 1000 inpatients). Patients were predominantly male (67%), mean age 64 years, most of them farmers (41%), with low educational level (69%) and mainly unmarried (72%). Medical co-morbidity was observed in 74% of the cases, mainly hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In 59% hospitalization was made after a court order. Thirty two patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia, mainly of the paranoid form (77%). Haloperidol was the most prescribed antipsychotic drug (62%). The main causes of mortality were respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (each 59%). Six of the occurred deaths could not be determined, but autopsy classified them as natural cause of death.

Low rate of mortality, no clear forensic responsibility and high rates of medical co-morbidities in schizophrenia patients were observed in this study. The implementation of medical screening and prevention programs of serious health problems should be a high priority in psychiatric hospitals in order to improve quality of life and extend life expectancy in mentally ill adults.