Incidence of cardiovascular diseases and type-2-diabetes mellitus in patients with psychiatric disorders

OBJECTIVE: To assess the incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type-2-diabetes in patients with psychiatric disorders. METHODS: A population-based study was conducted using the Swedish national health registries. Patients were identified from the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in 20 primary care centers and were categorized in four diagnosis cohorts according to their first psychiatric diagnosis: bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, or other mood disorder. A control cohort of patients with no psychiatric disorders followed in the same primary care centers was also identified. Incident CVD and type-2-diabetes were defined as the presence of a diagnosis of CVD or diabetes during the follow-up period in patients without prior event. RESULTS: The age and sex standardized incidence rate of CVD was 13.5 per 1000 patient-year in the patients with any psychiatric disorder versus 6.3 per 1000 patient-year in the controls. A similar trend was observed for incident diabetes (5.7 versus 3.4 per 1000 patient-year, respectively). The bipolar disorder and the schizophrenia cohorts showed the highest standardized incidence rates. CONCLUSION: Incidence of CVD and to a lesser extent type-2-diabetes was particularly high in patients with psychiatric disorders. This carries strong clinical implications for the prevention of CVD and type-2-diabetes in these patients.