(Press-News.org) 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."
### Publication: 15 January online, American Journal of Psychiatry
Authors: Casey Crump, MD, PhD; Marilyn A. Winkleby, PhD; Kristina Sundquist, MD, PhD; Jan Sundquist, MD, PhD
Title: 'Comorbidities and Mortality in Persons with Schizophrenia: A Swedish National Cohort Study'. Am J Psychiatry 2013; 10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12050599 http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/AJPInAdvance.aspx
Contact: Professor Jan Sundquist, general practitioner
Centre for Primary Health Care Research
Department of Clinical Sciences, Malmö
Lund University/Region Skåne
Mobile: +46 705 807530
The study has partly been financed by the National Institute of Health, USA, and the Swedish Research Council.
New findings on mortality of individuals with schizophrenia
2013-01-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Immune function in critically ill kids with influenza reveals immune suppression in non-survivors
2013-01-22
Investigators from 15 children's medical centers, including Nationwide Children's Hospital, observed and evaluated critically ill children with influenza to evaluate the relationships between levels of systemic inflammation, immune function and likelihood to die from the illness. The study appears in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine.
The innate immune system is the cellular arm of the immune system that serves as a first-responder to new threats, and is thought to drive the inflammatory response in many forms of critical illness. Recent evidence indicates that ...
Human-tiger conflict: Are the risks overestimated?
2013-01-22
Wildlife conservationists are well aware of the potential conflicts that exist between the endangered species they seek to protect and the human populations which inhabit areas where the animals live. Carnivores, such as tigers, pose a risk to humans and their livestock and can be killed because of this potential risk. Previous research has found that killing of animals can be motivated as much by social and psychological factors, such as perception of danger, as by any actual real risk posed by a species.
A new study published in the Springer journal Human Ecology ...
Mama bear knows best, University of Alberta study shows
2013-01-22
Mama bear appears to know best when it comes to selecting a place to call home, according to a new University of Alberta study.
The study, published in the latest issue of PLOS ONE, explored whether the rearing of cubs by their mothers shaped which habitats grizzly bears eventually choose.
The findings "suggest that habitat selection is learned by young grizzly bears from their mothers, and would likely be a more adaptive strategy than using instinct," said lead author Scott Nielsen, assistant professor in the U of A Department of Renewable Resources.
The University ...
New evidence indicates auroras occur outside our solar system
2013-01-22
University of Leicester planetary scientists have found new evidence suggesting auroras – similar to Earth's Aurora Borealis - occur on bodies outside our solar system.
Auroras occur on several planets within our solar system, and the brightest - on Jupiter – are 100 times brighter than those on Earth. However, no auroras have yet been observed beyond Neptune.
A new study led by University of Leicester lecturer Dr Jonathan Nichols has shown that processes strikingly similar to those which power Jupiter's auroras could be responsible for radio emissions detected from ...
Penn study sheds light on the complexity of gene therapy for congenital blindness
2013-01-22
PHILADELPHIA - Independent clinical trials, including one conducted at the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine, have reported safety and efficacy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a congenital form of blindness caused by mutations in a gene (RPE65) required for recycling vitamin A in the retina. Inherited retinal degenerative diseases were previously considered untreatable and incurable. There were early improvements in vision observed in the trials, but a key question about the long-term efficacy of gene therapy for curing the retinal degeneration ...
Study: Bariatric surgery in extremely obese adolescents
2013-01-22
This time of year many people make resolutions to live a healthier lifestyle, exercise more, lose weight and eat better. For the adolescents who are extremely obese in this country, diet and exercise alone often are not enough to get their weight down. Some of those teens will require weight loss surgery to improve their overall health. According to a recent study published in the January print issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, bariatric surgery in extremely obese adolescents also was shown to be beneficial in helping to reverse previously undiagnosed cardiovascular ...
UBC research: Forget about fair – It's better when bosses pick favorites
2013-01-22
A new study from the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business shows that bosses should pick favourites if they want top performing teams.
"Conventional wisdom tells us that we should treat everyone the same to create a collegial and productive work atmosphere," says Sauder Professor Karl Aquino, who co-authored the forthcoming study for the Journal of Business Ethics. "But our research shows this can be a disincentive for workers who would otherwise go above and beyond on behalf of the team with a little bit of extra attention."
In a series of experiments, ...
A relative from the Tianyuan Cave
2013-01-22
This press release is available in German.
An international team of researchers including Svante Pääbo and Qiaomei Fu of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, sequenced nuclear and mitochondrial DNA that had been extracted from the leg of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, China. Analyses of this individual's DNA showed that the Tianyuan human shared a common origin with the ancestors of many present-day Asians and Native Americans. In addition, the researchers found that the proportion of Neanderthal and Denisovan-DNA ...
Enzyme replacement therapy shows promising results in X-linked myotubular myopathy
2013-01-22
A collaborative research team including a Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) pediatric neuropathologist successfully mitigated some of the effects of a muscular disease by using a new targeted enzyme replacement therapy strategy from 4s3 Bioscience.
The findings are published in the January edition of Human and Molecular Genetics http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/09/hmg.ddt003.full.pdf+html.
X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) is a severe muscle disease caused by an absence of a protein called myotubularin. There is currently no treatment for this ...
New 2D material for next generation high-speed electronics
2013-01-22
Scientists at CSIRO and RMIT University have produced a new two-dimensional material that could revolutionise the electronics market, making "nano" more than just a marketing term.
The material – made up of layers of crystal known as molybdenum oxides – has unique properties that encourage the free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds.
In a paper published in the January issue of materials science journal Advanced Materials, the researchers explain how they adapted a revolutionary material known as graphene to create a new conductive nano-material.
Graphene was ...