Acute care hospital mortality of schizophrenic patients.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although schizophrenic patients have higher mortality than the general nonschizophrenic population, few studies have investigated acute care hospital mortality of schizophrenic patients. METHODS: To assess acute care hospital mortality of schizophrenic patients, we analyzed hospital mortality, the risk factors for hospital mortality, and the causes of death of schizophrenic patients admitted to an acute care hospital in Japan over an 18-year period. RESULTS: We identified 55 deaths among 1108 schizophrenic patients, for a mortality rate of 5.0%. The overall standardized mortality ratio was 1.29 (95% CI, 0.98-1.68) compared with nonschizophrenic hospitalized patients. Significant risk factors for mortality were malignant neoplasm, cardiovascular disease, and admission through the emergency department. The leading causes of death in acute care hospitalizations were suicide (14.5%), malignant lymphoma or leukemia (10.9%), stroke (9.0%), and sepsis (7.3%). CONCLUSIONS: There was a nearly significant trend toward increased mortality of schizophrenic patients receiving acute hospital care compared with that of nonschizophrenic patients. Because suicide was the most frequent cause of death, a focus on suicide prevention is needed in this population.