Is severe mental illness associated with increased prevalence, incidence, and mortality from cardiovascular disease compared to controls?
Severe mental illness is associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, emphasizing the urgent need for aggressive CVD screening and risk factor management in this population.
Moreover, CVD prevalence (p=0.007), but not CVD incidence (p=0.21), increased in more recently conducted studies. This large-scale meta-analysis confirms that SMI patients have significantly increased risk of CVD and CVD-related mortality, and that elevated body mass index, antipsychotic use, and CVD screening and management require urgent clinical attention.
Correll et al. (Fri,) studied this question.