Thursday, October 25, 2007

Psychiatric Conditions Increase the Risk of Heart Disease

Although mortality rate among people suffering from cardiovascular diseases has declined in the United States over the past years, patients suffering from acute mental illness remain deprived of the benefits experienced by healthy individuals. These views were expressed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by a psychiatrist --John W. Newcomer at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Newcomer, who is the professor of psychiatry and psychology and of medicine and medical director of the Center for Clinical Studies at Washington University, said that people suffering from mental ailments including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and various forms of depression live 25 -30 years shorter than those with no such ailments. Though suicide remains one of the major causes of death among these individuals, but most of them die prematurely on account of cardiovascular diseases.

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