Year: 1987 Source: Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, v.175, no.11, (1987), p.674-680 SIEC No: 19990150

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.