|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Life Expectancy Cut 25 Years for Patients with
Mental Illnesses Due to Poor Care, Cardiovascular Disease
Medicare patients hospitalized for heart attacks had
19% increase in mortality for patients with any mental disorder, 34%
increase with schizophrenia.
| |
 Up
to 80% of patients with mental illness are smokers and consume
up to 44% of all cigarettes in the U.S. |
|
Oct. 17, 2007 - While death from cardiovascular
disease (CVD) has markedly declined in the U.S. during the past several
decades, a commentary by a researcher at Florida Atlantic University (FAU)
published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
shows that patients with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder and depression lose an average of 25 years or more of
life expectancy due largely to CVD and disparity in care.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Unique Community-Wide Approach Confronting Dementia
in Indianapolis
Discovery Network building efficient, effective,
locally sensitive solutions for dementia care
Oct. 11, 2007
Older Women Twice as Likely to Die in Five Years
After Having Panic Attack
Panic attack also makes them four times as likely to
suffer heart attack
Oct. 1, 2007
Smokers in Study Were 50 Percent More Likely to Get
Alzheimer’s or Dementia
Study of 7,000 people 55 and over for seven years
Sept. 4, 2007
Large Study Proves Antidepressants Lower Suicide
Risk for All Adults
National Institute of Mental Health funds study of
226,866 patients
July 6, 2007
Dementia Less Likely with Improved Efforts to
Prevent Vascular Disease
Study finds mix of disease in dementia
brains, often Alzheimer’s and stroke
June 14, 2007
Dementia in Older People Can Be Accurately Predicted
by New Tool
Some surprising risk factors: slim, non-drinkers,
artery bypass, moving slowly, 70 or older, poor cognitive scores
June 11, 2007
Antipsychotic Drugs Increase Risk of Death in Senior
Citizens with Dementia
Widely prescribed to manage behavioral symptoms of
dementia in older people
June 5, 2007
Read the latest news
on
Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health |
|
“While suicide is a key factor in the cause of
death in these patients, it is important to note that CVD accounts for
far more premature deaths in this patient population,” said Charles H.
Hennekens, M.D., Sir Richard Doll Research Professor in the Charles E.
Schmidt College of Biomedical Science at FAU.
The commentary delineates the disparities in CVD
mortality and prevention efforts comparing the general population and
individuals with severe mental illnesses.
Some of the key findings are:
• Patients with severe mental illness who
experience an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) were significantly less likely
than the general population to receive drug therapies with proven
benefits such as thrombolytics, aspirin, beta blockers and ACE
inhibitors.
• These patients were also significantly less
likely to undergo cardiac catheterizations and receive emergency
angioplasties or coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
• A study of 88,000 Medicare patients
hospitalized for myocardial infarctions showed a 19% increase in
mortality during the follow-up period for patients with any mental
disorder and a 34% increase in mortality for patients with
schizophrenia.
• The prevalence of diabetes, dyslipidemia
(elevation of plasma cholesterol), hypertension and obesity are also 1.5
to 2 times more prevalent in patients with severe mental illness than in
the general population.
• Patients with diabetes and severe mental
illness are less likely than patients with diabetes and no mental
illness to receive standard-of-care treatment. In general, screening for
hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia occur at very low rates in individuals
with serious mental disorders despite the National Cholesterol Education
Program’s recommended guidelines for aggressive treatment for diabetic
patients.
• Fifty to 80 percent of patients with
diagnosable mental illness are smokers and consume 34 to 44 percent of
all cigarettes in the U.S. In contrast, in the general population,
smoking rates have declined from more than 50 percent in the 1950s to
approximately 25 percent today. Cigarette consumption has been the
leading avoidable cause of all premature deaths, representing a key
measure of risk. In some states, tobacco-dependence treatment is not
covered for disabled patients with fixed incomes, and only a few states
cover all treatments recommended in the U.S. Preventive Services Task
Force guidelines on smoking cessation.
• A study of more than 300,000 patients with
diabetes in the Veterans Administration system showed that patients with
mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder had a
significantly increased risk of not receiving appropriate elements of
care, such as eye examinations, plasma lipid testing and glycated
hemoglobin monitoring.
| |
According to the National Institute of Mental Health about six
percent or 1 in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental
illness including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and
depression. In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause
of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44, and many
people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given
time. |
|
New Approaches Needed
“The data clearly indicate that there is a crucial
need for new approaches to prevention and treatment of cardiovascular
disease in patients with severe mental illnesses,” said Hennekens.
“In
the general U.S. population, during the last decade, most of the
observed reductions in deaths due to cardiovascular disease are a result
of improvements in the treatment of acute events such as heart attacks
and in particular, long-term treatment and prevention efforts.”
A recent Institute of Medicine report concerning
the need to improve overall healthcare for patients with mental
illnesses emphasized the importance of integrating and co-localizing
psychiatric and medical services.
| |
Medicare News
Senior Citizen Patients in Medicare, Medicaid Not
Receiving Quality Care
Elderly patients not given full range of treatments
and services for their conditions
 Oct. 17, 2007 - If the care received by vulnerable
older people concurrently enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid was
evaluated on a grading scale, it would squeak by with a barely passing
mark, a new UCLA study has found. They found that “vulnerable
elderly” patients received only 65 percent of the tests and other
diagnostic evaluations and treatments recommended for a variety of
illnesses and conditions, including diabetes and heart disease.
Read more...
|
|
“Efforts to improve the disparity in the care and
treatment of CVD in individuals with severe mental illnesses must
include better education and involvement of primary care physicians,
cardiologists, endocrinologists and psychiatrists,” said Hennekens.
“We have to be more aggressive in monitoring,
identifying and reducing risk in this patient population. Without future
collaborative efforts, the large burden of avoidable premature mortality
from CVD in these patients is likely to continue and increase in
magnitude and severity.”
“The exciting work by Dr. Hennekens underscores
even more than ever the need for the medical community to be aware of
the cardiovascular problems of patients with mental illnesses and to be
as aggressive as possible in their treatment,” said Dr. Michael
Friedland, vice president for medical programs and dean of the Charles
E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science at FAU.
“FAU is working on the cutting edge of this issue
through the continued efforts of Dr. Hennekens and his colleagues.”
Editor’s Notes:
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in
1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University
serves more than 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven
campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern
coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with
a world-class faculty, FAU hosts nine colleges: College of Architecture,
Urban & Public Affairs, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters,
the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, the Barry Kaye
College of Business, the College of Education, the College of
Engineering & Computer Science, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College,
the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt
College of Science.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
