Among 1,324 patients admitted from a psychiatric service to a medical service during an 8-year period, there were 236 deaths. The first 4 years (pretranquilizer Period A, 1952Period A, -1955 were compared with the last 4 years (Period B, 1956(Period B, -1959 when most patients were receiving tranquilizers. While some causes of sickness and death were unaffected, 3 significant differences were found, namely an increased morbidity and mortality from arteriosclerotic heart disease and cancer, an increase in suicides, and the appearance of known complications from drug therapy during Period B. It was not always possible to link these changes to the use of tranquilizers, but it was noted that 90% of the patients who committed suicide during Period B had been receiving tranquilizers.
Schizophrenic patients are referred to frequently as immunologically incompetent or poor antibody responders. However, if the literature comparing the response of immunized chronic schizophrenics with non-schizophrenic controls is examined, contradictory results may be found (1). Development of allergic responsiveness in schizophrenics as compared to control subjects was also studied with controversial results (4, 2). No studies have been reported in which the antibody response of schizophrenic patients was measured quantitatively simultaneously with the development of an allergic skin reaction following sensitization.
An investigation of 1,275 autopsy protocols and available clinical records of white, male, chronic schizophrenic patients, 40 years or older, with an average length of hospitalization of over 20 years, showed that (a) the prevalence of coronary heart disease as a cause of death was as high in this group of schizophrenic subjects (31 per cent) as in the comparable section of the general population; (b) the fatality rate (66 per cent) of coronary heart disease, (c) the incidence of sudden death (64 per cent of all deaths from coronary heart disease), (d) the incidence of myocardial rupture (21.7 per cent of all fresh myocardial infarctions) and (e) the incidence of painless heart attacks were higher in schizophrenic patients (60 per cent) than in the general population; (f) myocardial aneurysm was found less commonly in schizophrenic patients (2 per cent of all patients who either died of coronary heart disease or other causes but showed old infarct or old occlusion), and (g) there was an almost complete absence of anginal syndrome preceding or following myocardial infarction.
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