[Comparative study of long-term mortality in the mentally ill].

The mortality in mental illness has been studied after an average follow-up period of 3-4 decades in a material of 5661 former in-patients of the Psychiatric University Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland), from which 3520 probands were dead at the date of reference. By use of an improved method, the calculations showed in all diagnostic groups, and generally more marked in women than in men, a 1,34 to 9,72 times higher mortality than in the general population, increasing in the following order: head injuries, psychogenic and psychopathic disorders, manic syndromes, schizophrenia, depressions, mental retardation, alcoholisme, other psychosis, epilepsy, general paralysis, other cerebro-organic conditions. Several possible explanations of these results are discussed.