[Respiratory diseases as a cause of death in schizophrenia].

Abstract

Eight hundred and thirty autopsy protocols of died patients with schizophrenia from 1952 to 2007 were studied. Respiratory pathology as a cause of death was noted in 29.8% of cases. There are great changes in the study parameters, which have been particularly evident in the past 2 decades: a reduction in the rate of lobar (croupous) and bronchial pneumonia, an increase in the number of cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. The higher incidence of the two latter diseases is associated by the author with the side effects of phenothiazine neuroleptics in the long-term treatment of schizophrenia.