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Professor W. Wolfgang Fleischhacker, principal author of Comorbid SomaticIllnesses in Patients with Severe Mental Disorders: Clinical, Policy, andResearch Challenges which was published in the Journal of ClinicalPsychiatry, together with leading physicians, confirmed that compared to thegeneral public there were serious inequalities in the physical health ofpatients with severe mental illness and a shorter life expectancy, dueprimarily to cardiovascular disease.
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Professor Fleischhacker said: "The prevalence of important risk factorsfor cardiovascular disease, such as diabetes and obesity, is about 1.5 to 3.5times higher in adults with schizophrenia than in the general population."
One of the key problems which contributed to neglecting the physicalhealth of these patients, and identified by Professor Fleischhacker andcolleagues in their paper, included stigmatization of mental illness. Thisled to widespread discrimination, including insufficient health careprovision; suboptimal integration of general health and psychiatric careservices and a lack of consensus as to which health care professional shouldbe responsible for the prevention management of physical ill health.
Sigrid Steffen, President of the European Federation of Associations ofFamilies of People with Mental Illness (EUFAMI) said: "For the past number ofyears, families have become aware of the situation and are very concernedabout these additional health dangers. We believe that they have a veryserious impact on our loved ones. The release of this article is a welcomedevelopment as it means that the issues are finally being treated asimportant."
The paper sets out a five-step plan to address these inequalities. Thefocus is on: taking responsibility for the patient - by the primaryresponsible treating physician; education and training - to increase generalmedical education in psychiatric training and increase psychiatric educationin general medical training; access to services - by implementing measuressuch as improving access to general physical healthcare, appropriateinsurance coverage and general physical healthcare within psychiatricinstitutions and systems of mental health care; collaboration with colleaguesin other disciplines - to develop comprehensive educations efforts aimed atimproving the knowledge and skills of mental health care providers; and moreresearch into comorbidities seen in severe mental disorders.
The article is based on presentations and discussions during twointernational meetings in 2006 that were funded by an independent educationalgrant from Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
List of Authors
Dr Wolfgang Fleischhacker, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria
Dr Marcelo Cetkovich-Bakmas, the Department of Psychiatry, Institute ofCognitive Neurology (INECO), and the Department of Psychiatry, Institute ofNeurosciences, Favaloro Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr Marc De Hert, University Psychiatric Center, Catholic UniversityLeuven, Belgium
Dr Charles Hennekens, the Department of Clinical Sciences and MedicalEducation, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Dr Martin Lambert, the Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
Dr Stefan Leucht, the Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany
Dr Mario Maj, The Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples, Italy
Dr Roger McIntyre, Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit, UniversityHealth Network, Toronto, Can
