COMORBIDITY OF HOSPITAL-TREATED PSYCHIATRIC AND PHYSICAL DISORDERS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SCHIZOPHRENIA - A 28 YEAR FOLLOW-UP OF THE 1966 NORTHERN FINLAND GENERAL-POPULATION BIRTH COHORT

We studied the comorbidity of psychiatric and physical disorders in a sample (n = 11 017) from the unselected, general population, Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort. During the period 1982-1994, hospital-treat ed psychiatric patients were more likely than people without psychiatr ic diagnoses to have been treated for physical disease in hospital war ds, 298 out of 387 (77.0%) vs 6687 out of 10 630 (62.9%) (OR=2.0, 95% CI=1.6-2.5). Injuries, poisonings and indefinite symptoms were a more common reason for hospital treatment in people with schizophrenia or o ther psychiatric disorder as compared with people without a psychiatri c disorder. Men with psychiatric disorder had more than a 50-fold risk for poisoning by psychotropic drugs (OR = 52.6, 95% CI = 27.7-99.8), women with psychiatric disorder a 20-fold risk (OR = 19.0, 95% CI = 9. 5-38.1) and schizophrenics more than a 30-fold risk (OR = 37.5, 95% CI = 19.1-73.8). Men with psychiatric disorders were more commonly hospi talised for a variety of gastrointestinal disorders and circulatory di seases (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.2-4.4), as compared with men with no psyc hiatric disorder. Respiratory diseases (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.2-4.2), verte bral column disorders (OR=4.2, 95% CI=1.8-9.9), gynaecological disorde rs (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.2-3.6) and induced abortions (OR = 1.8, 95% C I = 1.2-2.7) were more prevalent in women with psychiatric disorder th an in other women. Epilepsy was strongly associated with schizophrenia (OR=11.1, 95% CI=4.0-31.6). Nervous and sensory organ diseases in gen eral (OR=2.5, 95% CI = 1.1-5.8) and inflammatory diseases of the bowel (OR = 12.8, 95% CI = 3.8-42.7) were also overrepresented in schizophr enia when compared with people without a psychiatric disorder. Our res ults indicate that physicians must be alert for psychiatric disorder, and mental health professionals must be aware of the considerable phys ical morbidity in their patients.