The Iowa record-linkage study. II. Excess mortality among patients with organic mental disorders

Of 543 patients with organic mental disorders hospitalized at the University of Iowa Psychiatric Hospital, Iowa City, during a ten-year period, 87 died. This mortality was significant based on a control population. Patients of all ages were at risk for early death, especially those younger than 40 years. Risk was greatest during the first two years of follow-up; thereafter the observed death rate approached the expected rate. Patients were at special risk for death from "natural" causes, particularly cancer and heart disease among women, and influenza or pneumonia or "other" natural causes among men. During the first two years of follow-up, men were also at risk for death from accidents or suicide. Women with alcohol- and drug-related psychoses were at risk for death early in follow-up, but the diagnosis was not associated with risk from "unnatural death" in either sex.