New Study: People with Schizophrenia Live 12-15 Years Less

Rebecca Lewis January 22, 2013

In a collaborative study by the Lund University in Sweden and Stanford University in the US, researchers found that people with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy that is 12 to 15 years shorter than those who do not have the disease.

Schizophrenia is a chronic, long-term brain disorder characterised by a wide range of psychological symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, behavioural problems and jumbled thoughts. People who have this illness are usually unable to differentiate imagination from reality. Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental conditions and it is estimated that 1 in 100 people suffers from this disease.

Schizophrenics have ‘shorter’ lives

It has long been established that sufferers of schizophrenia have shorter life expectancy than those who do not have the disease. However, the reason for this has been unknown. In the current study, scientists have found that most premature deaths that occurred among these people are due to two major health problems – cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The study involved over six million individuals, of whom 8,277 had schizophrenia. The research team obtained data from the Swedish population and health registers between the period of 2003 and 2009 to analyse the possible cause or causes of premature deaths.

They found that schizophrenics had contact with their health service providers more than twice as often as those who did not have the condition. Nevertheless, they are less likely to be diagnosed of cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Better health support needed

In their report, the team found that female schizophrenics were 3.3 times more likely to die from heart disease and 1.7 times more likely to die from cancer. On the other hand, male schizophrenics were 2.2 times more likely to die from heart disease and 1.4 times more likely to die from cancer. Despite the high risk, only 43.7% and 26.3% of women and men respectively who died of cardiovascular disease had been diagnosed.

The researchers, headed by Jan Sundquist, general practitioner and professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University, said it is unacceptable that such a vulnerable group of people who have extensive contacts with their doctors should die prematurely of diseases that are preventable. They recommended providing a greater degree of preventive and diagnostic measures for schizophrenia patients.

Source of this article:

New findings on mortality of individuals with schizophrenia