A nationwide study of the risk of all-cause, sudden death, and cardiovascular mortality among antipsychotic-treated patients with schizophrenia in Taiwan

Introduction: Studies have reported higher risks of mortality for patients with schizophrenia, compared to the general population. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of all-cause, sudden death, and cardiovascular mortality among patients with schizophrenia in terms of types of antipsychotics. Methods: A retrospective cohort study assessed the risk of mortality among antipsychotic-treated patients with schizophrenia. The study linked the Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) claims and National Register of Death databases from 2001 to 2015. Patients were hierarchically assigned to the following index antipsychotic treatment groups: atypical long acting injection (LAI), typical LAI, atypical oral, and typical oral. Results: A total of 68,159 antipsychotic-treated patients with schizophrenia were analyzed. Under the hierar-chical grouping, the largest percentages of patients were on atypical oral antipsychotic regimens (65.51%), followed by typical oral (14.00%), typical LAI (12.84%), and atypical LAI (7.65%). Typical oral patients had the highest incidence of all-cause mortality of 27.48 per 1000 patient-years and the atypical LAI group had the lowest incidence (13.95 per 1000 patient-years). Compared to typical oral users, there were lower risks of all-cause mortality for users of atypical LAI (aHR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.47-0.81), typical LAI (aHR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.55-0.78), and atypical orals (aHR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.49-0.62). Conclusion: Compared to typical oral users, we found a lower risk of all-cause mortality, sudden death, and cardiovascular mortality among schizophrenia users of LAIs and oral atypicals. Further research is warranted to characterize the risk of mortality among users of more recently available LAIs in the Asia Pacific region and elsewhere.

Automated summary

This study found that patients with schizophrenia had varying risks of mortality based on different types of antipsychotic treatments, with oral medications posing the highest risk and long-acting injections having the lowest risk.