The pathologies of people with schizophrenia are less well taken care of by health systems.
The early mortality of schizophrenics is three times higher than that of the rest of the population, according to a Canadian study. This means that each year these people are three times more likely to die.
Higher risk factors, side effects of drugs… Several factors explain this difference, but one of them is underlined by the Canadian researchers from the University of Toronto who conducted the study: they do not benefit, as the rest of the population, of the progress made by the health systems.
More cardiovascular disease
Epidemiologists analyzed all the deaths that occurred in the Canadian province of Ontario between 1993 and 2012. They thus collected data on more than one and a half million people, of whom more than 30,000 were officially suffering from schizophrenia. They publish their results in the magazine Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The figures are not reassuring. Schizophrenics die, on average, eight years earlier than others. Their early mortality rate is higher in general, but also for cardiovascular diseases such as strokes or heart attacks, and for chronic diseases such as diabetes.
The scientists noted, in particular, that while mortality from cardiovascular disease had decreased significantly in the general population during the 20 years of follow-up, this was not the case for those with schizophrenia.
A failing health system
“It seems that people with schizophrenia have not benefited from the advances that have been made for patients in the general population living with chronic physical pathologies,” explains Dr. Paul Kurdyak, epidemiologist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (Canada ), and lead author of the study.
It is in particular on the particular risks linked to mental pathologies that the health system fails. People with schizophrenia are, for example, more at risk of diabetes or obesity. They are also more exposed to the consequences of smoking or a sedentary lifestyle, explain the researchers. The drugs prescribed to them also promote weight gain and the development of diabetes.
Comprehensive support is needed
The management of schizophrenics is perhaps too focused on the control of mental illness and its symptoms, on the taking of treatments and the prevention of suicide, and not enough on the general health of the patients.
“As healthcare professionals, it is our responsibility to work together, in collaboration with the entire healthcare system, to provide these patients with better physical and mental care,” continues Dr. Kurdyak. The consequences are terrible, even dramatic, when we do not do this. Lives are lost. »
In short, mental pathologies seem to create inequality in the treatment given to chronic diseases, compared to the rest of the population. And, with the increase in life expectancy observed in the general population, this gap is widening.
In France, schizophrenia affects 600,000 people, according to Inserm figures.
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