The risk of all-cause mortality among patients with chronic, non-communicable diseases is more than doubled if they also have a psychiatric comorbidity, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine.
Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are a global public health challenge accounting for an estimated 40 million excess deaths annually. Researchers drew on Swedish health data for 1 million patients born between 1932 and 1995 who had diagnoses of chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. More than a quarter of the people in the analysis also had a co-occurring psychiatric disorder during their lives.
Within 5 years of diagnosis, 7% of the people included in the study had died from any cause and 0.3% had died from suicide. Comorbid psychiatric disorders were associated with higher all-cause mortality (15.4% to 21.1%) when compared to those without such conditions (5.5% to 9.1%). When compared with an unaffected sibling to account for familial risk factors, patients with psychiatric comorbidity remained consistently associated with elevated rates of premature mortality and suicide (7.2–8.9 times higher). Different psychiatric diagnoses affected mortality risks; in those with comorbid substance use disorder it was 8.3–9.9 times compared to unaffected siblings, and by 5.3–7.4 times in those with comorbid depression.
“Improving assessment, treatment, and follow-up of people with comorbid psychiatric disorders may reduce the risk of mortality in people with chronic non-communicable diseases,” the authors concluded.
Source: EurekAlert!
