Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
1995-6-27
pubmed:abstractText
The mortality of patients suffering from affective disorders is much higher than that of the general population; this excess is due to both suicides and cardiovascular disease. During long-term lithium treatment, the overall mortality has not been found to differ significantly from that of the general population but the question remains whether this lowering, if it is in fact caused by lithium, is due to a reduction in suicide frequency or cardiovascular mortality, or both. We analysed data from 827 previously studied patients and used a procedure that estimated both overall mortality and cause-specific mortalities by single-case analysis. For overall mortality, the ratio of observed deaths (among the patients) to expected deaths (in the general population) was 1.14, which is not significantly different from 1.0; this was also found in our previous analysis. In the whole patient group, comprising 5600 patient years under lithium treatment, seven suicides were observed and 1.3 expected, resulting in a standard mortality ratio of 5.22; this is significantly > 1.0, but markedly lower than that found in patients with affective disorders not given lithium. Cardiovascular mortality was not found to be higher in our patients than in the general population. In view of the fact that a placebo-controlled mortality study under long-term conditions is neither ethically nor practically feasible, our findings cannot prove definitively that long-term lithium treatment counteracts factors responsible for the excess suicide and cardiovascular mortality of affective disorders. However, our observations are compatible with such a notion.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
0165-0327
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
21
pubmed:volume
33
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
N
pubmed:pagination
67-75
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-9-28
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1995
pubmed:articleTitle
Excess cardiovascular and suicide mortality of affective disorders may be reduced by lithium prophylaxis.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Psychiatry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't