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Total mortality in people admitted to a psychiatric hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Vidje Hansen ,
Egil Arnesen  and
Bjarne K. Jacobsen
Vidje Hansen*
Affiliation:
Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway
Egil Arnesen
Affiliation:
Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway
Bjarne K. Jacobsen
Affiliation:
Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway
*
Vidje Hansen, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsa, Norway. Fax 47 77644831
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Abstract

Background

The aim was to document the mortality of psychiatric patients within a service system characterised by a low beds-to-population ratio.

Method

All patients admitted to one psychiatric hospital were followed from date of first admission after 31 July 1980 until 31 December 1992 with regard to death, by linkage to the Norwegian Central Register of Persons. Age-adjusted total mortality rates and standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) compared with the general population were computed.

Results

Mortality rates were highest in men, and increased with age in both sexes. SMRs were highest in the younger age-groups, and the overall SMR was significantly higher for men than for women. Mortality was highest during the first year after admission for both sexes and was higher than in the general population in all diagnostic groups.

Conclusions

The mortality of psychiatric patients is still unsatisfactorily high, and men constitute a special high-risk group.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 170 , Issue 2 , February 1997 , pp. 186 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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