Mortality Among Psychiatric Patients Referred to the Mental Health Services in Valencia

The rate of survival & causes of mortality in a cohort of 2103 psychiatric patients on a psychiatric case register & followed up for 7 years are compared with those of a general population sample (n=2382) randomly extracted from the municipal census in Valencia, Spain. Multivariate analyses using Cox regression were conducted. The major affective disorders involved a greater risk of death due to suicide or accidents. The study concludes with a discussion of possible explanations for the results. (36 refs.)