Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:13:13.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Pattern of Mortality in Severe Neuroses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Andrew Sims
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham B15 2TH
Patricia Prior
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, Medical School, University of Birmingham

Summary

Is there an increased relative risk of death in severe neurosis? 1,482 patients from three psychiatric units in different hospitals in Birmingham were followed-up after a mean of 10.9 years. 91 per cent of the sample were traced and 139 patients were found to have died; a highly significant increased mortality for both sexes for all causes of death. Although suicide and accidents contributed disproportionately, particularly in early follow-up, there was still a markedly increased mortality from the combined categories of nervous respiratory and cardiovascular disease, more evenly distributed in time.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babigian, H. M. & Odoroff, C. L. (1969) The mortality experience of a population with psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126 (4), 470–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barraclough, B. M., Bunch, J., Nelson, B. & Sainsbury, P. (1974) A hundred cases of suicide: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355–73.Google Scholar
Bennet, G. (1970) Bristol floods 1968. Controlled survey of effects on health of local community disaster. British Medical Journal, iii, 454–8.Google Scholar
Burton, J. (1977) The Coroner. British Journal of Psychiatry News and Notes, June 1977, 1316.Google Scholar
Carruthers, M. E. (1969) Aggression and atheroma. Lancet, ii, 1170–1.Google Scholar
Coppen, A. & Metcalfe, M. (1963) Cancer and extra-version. British Medical Journal, ii, 1819.Google Scholar
Holding, T. A. & Barraclough, B. M. (1977) Psychiatric morbidity in a sample of accidents. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 244–52.Google Scholar
Innes, G. & Millar, W. M. (1970) Mortality among psychiatric patients. Scottish Medical Journal, 15, 143–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keehn, R. J., Goldberg, I. D. & Beebe, G. W. (1974) Twenty-four year mortality follow-up of army veterans with disability separations for psycho-neurosis in 1944. Psychosomatic Medicine, 36, 2746.Google Scholar
Kerr, T. A., Schapira, K. & Roth, M. (1969) The relationship between premature death and affective disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 1277–82.Google Scholar
Ovenstone, I. M. K. (1973) A psychiatric approach to the diagnosis of suicide and its effect upon the Edinburgh statistics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 1521.Google Scholar
Rees, W. D. & Lutkins, S. G. (1967) Mortality of bereavement. British Medical Journal, 4, 13.Google Scholar
Registrar General (1961) Statistical Review of England & Wales for the Year 1961. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Registrar General (1968) A Glossary of Mental Disorders: Studies on Medical and Population Subjects No. 22. London: H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Rorsman, B. (1974) Mortality among psychiatric patients. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 50, 354–75.Google Scholar
Schmale, A. H. & Iker, H. P. (1966) The affect of hopelessness and the development of cancer. I. Identification of uterine cervical cancer in women with atypical cytology. Psychosomatic Medicine, 28, 714–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, A. C. P. (1973a) The mortality in neurosis. Lancet, ii, 1072–6.Google Scholar
Sims, A. C. P. (1973b) Importance of a high tracing rate in long term medical follow-up studies. Lancet, ii, 433–5.Google Scholar
W.H.O. (1957) International Classification of Diseases: Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 7th Revision. Geneva.Google Scholar
W.H.O. (1965) International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 8th Revision. Geneva.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.