Mortality in a Follow-Up of 500 Psychiatric Outpatients: I. Total Mortality

Total or all-cause mortality data were determined from a prospective study of 500 randomly selected psychiatric outpatients during a mean follow-up period of seven years. With the use of age-, sex-, & race-adjusted methods, a mortality nearly twice that expected from reference population rates was observed. Mortality was excessive among younger, but not older, patients; & among white men & women & black men, but not black women. Certain psychiatric diagnoses were associated with excess mortality: alcoholism, antisocial personality, drug addiction, homosexuality, organic brain syndrome, & schizophrenia. Excess mortality was not observed among patients with primary affective disorders. (46 refs.)