Health & Medicine
Heart Attacks High in Victims of Schizophrenia
Brooke Miller
First Posted: Oct 04, 2012 08:10 AM EDT
A serious chronic mental disorder schizophrenia affects how the person thinks, feels and act. Though the cause of schizophrenia is unknown, a study suggests that victims of this chronic disease are at a high risk of suffering from heart attacks.
The scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) examined the mortality and access to cardiac care after heart attacks (acute myocardial infarction) in those with schizophrenia. The detail of this study was published in the online in Schizophrenia Research.
The lifespan of the people with schizophrenia on an average is 20 years shorter than the general population. They attribute this partly to smoking, increased rates of diabetes, and metabolic problems brought on by the use of some antipsychotic medications. After the onset of a cardiac condition these factors worsen as victims of schizophrenia are less likely to make the necessary lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, to offset the problem.
This study was led by Dr. Paul Kurdyak, Chief of General and Health Systems Psychiatry at CAMH who worked on four years of Ontario wide patient data and tracked all incidents of heart attack among people with schizophrenia. These results were compared to the results of people without schizophrenia.
"When we looked at the data, we found that people with schizophrenia were 56 per cent more likely to die after discharge from hospital following a heart attack than those who did not have schizophrenia," said Kurdyak, also an Adjunct Scientist at ICES. "We also found that patients with schizophrenia, despite the increase in mortality risk after a heart attack, were half as likely to receive life-saving cardiac procedures and care from cardiologists as those without schizophrenia."
On analyzing the data the researchers learnt that people with schizophrenia were 50 percent less likely to receive cardiac procedures or to even see a cardiologist within 30 days of discharge from hospital.
"The numbers tell us that people with schizophrenia the ones who are at most risk to develop and subsequently die from heart attacks are not receiving adequate care," said Kurdyak. "The possible solutions are two-fold: prevention is one. We need to support patients whom we know are at risk of developing medication-related metabolic issues by working with them to provide strategies to offset weight gain, such as healthy eating and physical activity. The other part is aftercare the mental health care team, primary care providers, and the cardiac specialists need to work together to ensure that patients are seen again after a first incident of heart attack."
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First Posted: Oct 04, 2012 08:10 AM EDT
A serious chronic mental disorder schizophrenia affects how the person thinks, feels and act. Though the cause of schizophrenia is unknown, a study suggests that victims of this chronic disease are at a high risk of suffering from heart attacks.
The scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) examined the mortality and access to cardiac care after heart attacks (acute myocardial infarction) in those with schizophrenia. The detail of this study was published in the online in Schizophrenia Research.
The lifespan of the people with schizophrenia on an average is 20 years shorter than the general population. They attribute this partly to smoking, increased rates of diabetes, and metabolic problems brought on by the use of some antipsychotic medications. After the onset of a cardiac condition these factors worsen as victims of schizophrenia are less likely to make the necessary lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, to offset the problem.
This study was led by Dr. Paul Kurdyak, Chief of General and Health Systems Psychiatry at CAMH who worked on four years of Ontario wide patient data and tracked all incidents of heart attack among people with schizophrenia. These results were compared to the results of people without schizophrenia.
"When we looked at the data, we found that people with schizophrenia were 56 per cent more likely to die after discharge from hospital following a heart attack than those who did not have schizophrenia," said Kurdyak, also an Adjunct Scientist at ICES. "We also found that patients with schizophrenia, despite the increase in mortality risk after a heart attack, were half as likely to receive life-saving cardiac procedures and care from cardiologists as those without schizophrenia."
On analyzing the data the researchers learnt that people with schizophrenia were 50 percent less likely to receive cardiac procedures or to even see a cardiologist within 30 days of discharge from hospital.
"The numbers tell us that people with schizophrenia the ones who are at most risk to develop and subsequently die from heart attacks are not receiving adequate care," said Kurdyak. "The possible solutions are two-fold: prevention is one. We need to support patients whom we know are at risk of developing medication-related metabolic issues by working with them to provide strategies to offset weight gain, such as healthy eating and physical activity. The other part is aftercare the mental health care team, primary care providers, and the cardiac specialists need to work together to ensure that patients are seen again after a first incident of heart attack."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone