WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Patients with psychiatric disorders have an increased rate of sudden cardiac death (SCD), according to a study published online Oct. 22 in Heart.

Jasmin Mujkanovic, from the Rigshospitalet Hjertecentret in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues examined all deaths in Denmark among residents aged 18 to 90 years in 2010 to examine the incidence of SCD in patients with psychiatric disorders. Based on available information, all deaths were categorized as non-SCD or SCD.

There were 45,703 deaths among 4.3 million residents in 2010, and of these, 6,002 were due to SCD. The researchers found that patients with psychiatric disorders had a 1.79 to 6.45 times higher incidence rate ratio for SCD compared with the general population, which was age dependent. Psychiatric disorders were independently associated with SCD, with a hazard ratio of 2.31 when adjusting for age, sex, and comorbidities; the hazard ratio was highest for patients with schizophrenic disorders (hazard ratio, 4.51). An expected 10-year excess loss of life was seen for 18-year-old patients with a psychiatric disorder, while 13 percent of excess life years lost caused by SCD occurred among patients aged 18 to 40 years with a psychiatric disorder.

“Patients with psychiatric disorders, in comparison with the general population, had an increased rate of SCD across all age groups,” the authors write. “Patients with schizophrenic disorders were shown have the highest rates of SCD.”

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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