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A Sobering Thought
- Adil Y. Kadri, United Kiigdom SA2 0GH (15 February 2006)
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Adil Y. Kadri, Psychiatrist Cefn Coed Hospital, Swansea, Wales, United Kiigdom SA2 0GH
Send letter to journal:
adilkadri{at}hotmail.com Adil Y. Kadri, et al.
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I enjoyed reading this study on a very important but often neglected area of Psychiatry. We often see illnesses such as Schizophrenia as just diagnoses and think of our patients in terms of their symptoms and whether or not these have responded to medication or not. Moving through jobs (over the years) we often forget the person behind the illness and what happens to them in the longer term. This study highlights and also serves to remind us of the fact that a significant proportion of our patients with schizophrenia may die in a not so long period of time. For me at least, this is a sobering thought. The current study appeared to be comprehensive but it would have been interesting to know what the specific causes of death were in this particular sub-group and also the rates of illicit drug use. The author did list the medications which this sub-group was on (which were mainly the older traditionally used anti-psychotics) but in current practice most psychiatrists would tend to use the newer atypical anti-psychotics. I would therefore wonder, that if medications did contribute to the increased mortality seen in this study then the results may not hold true for current practice. Clinically, this would be a difficult question to answer for the simple reason that the results of a similar study started today for the atypicals may not be applicable in twenty years time time as they may no longer be in use. |
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