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Pica as a Cause of Death in Three Mentally Handicapped Men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

I. J. McLoughlin
I. J. McLoughlin*
Affiliation:
Darlington Memorial Hospital, Hollyhurst Road, Darlington, DL3 6HX
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Abstract

In Prudhoe Hospital, a large mental-handicap hospital of 1000 residents, it was found that of the 94 deaths that occurred between 1982 and 1986, three were closely associated with the habit of pica. These deaths occurred in severely and profoundly handicapped males, whose average age was 32, compared with an average age of death of 58 for the combined groups of severely and profoundly mentally handicapped patients (22 cases), and an average age of death of 60 for all degrees of handicap (94 cases). It seems likely that the habit of pica constitutes a cause of considerable morbidity and mortality in certain institutionalised patients.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 6 , June 1988 , pp. 842 - 845
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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