Mortality and causes of death of acute and transient psychotic disorders.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about mortality associated with acute transient psychoses. This paper examines mortality and causes of death of ICD-10 F23 'Acute and transient psychotic disorders' (ATPD). METHOD: Data from all subjects aged over 15 years who were enrolled in 1996 in the Danish psychiatric register with a first-admission diagnosis of ATPD were linked to the national register of causes of death. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for overall mortality and specific categories were calculated. RESULTS: Over the period 1996-2001, 87 (17.3%) of 503 patients with ATPD had died, accounting for a mortality rate of 35.3 per 1,000 person/years. The SMR for all causes (2.9), natural causes (2.5), and unnatural causes (9.2) were significantly increased. Suicide had the greatest SMR (30.9). CONCLUSIONS: These findings argue for excess mortality of ATPD particularly from suicide.