Abstract
Is Death From Natural Causes Still Excessive in Psychiatric Patients? A Follow-Up of 1593 Patients With Major Affective Disorder
Black D W~~Winokur G~~Nasrallah A
A follow-up of 1593 Iowans with major affective disorder showed excessive mortality from unnatural causes in primary and secondary depression, and bipolar depression, but not mania, compared with the general population. Excessive natural death reported in psychiatric patients is due to complicating physical disorders and not to the primary psychiatric disorder per se, whereas excessive unnatural death is due to the psychiatric disorder.