Life expectancy among those diagnosed with schizophrenia and even bipolar is shorter than the average.
I wonder why? I say its the antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, minor tranquilizers that are doing a lot of physical damage.
Cardiac issues, Cancer, Liver disease. Kidney disease. Diabetes all are factors -
I am all for psychiatric medications, but man as I am getting older - my physical health has been affected.
Our life expectancy is about 12 to 15 years shorter than the average - I say its got to be the meds.
Wish they would make safer more effective meds - I have got to talk to my pdoc about what my medication options are - Diabetes is taking its toll on my physical health.
A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the average life expectancy of men and women with schizophrenia is 15 years and 12 years shorter respectively than for those who do not suffer from the disease. The study has been carried out in collaboration with Stanford University in the US.
The reasons why people with schizophrenia have a shorter life expectancy have previously been unknown, but have been much discussed in recent years. The research report that has now been published shows that individuals with schizophrenia are more likely to die of two major diseases.
The study followed over six million individuals from 2003 to 2009, of whom 8 277 had schizophrenia, by analysing the Swedish population and health registers.
The results show that people with schizophrenia had contact with the health service over twice as often as people without the condition, but they were no more likely to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or cancer.
“Yet we saw an opposing pattern of death from these diseases. It is clear that the health service is failing to diagnose cardiovascular disease and cancer in these patients,” says Jan Sundquist, general practitioner and professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University.
Women with schizophrenia were 3.3 times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease and men 2.2 times more likely. Women with schizophrenia were 1.7 times more likely to die of cancer while men were 1.4 times more likely, compared with those without schizophrenia. Only 26.3% of the men with schizophrenia who died of cardiovascular disease had been diagnosed before their deaths, compared with 43.7% of the men who did not have schizophrenia.
“It is unacceptable that such a vulnerable group of people, who also have extensive documented contact with the health service, should die prematurely of conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer – diseases that should be preventable,” says Professor Sundquist. “A much greater degree of diagnostic and preventive measures could be put in place for this vulnerable group in our society.”