A record-linkage study of mortality and general hospital discharge in patients diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Abstract

Six hundred people diagnosed as schizophrenic by the specialist psychiatric services in Oxfordshire, between 1971 and 1973, were identified from the Oxford Psychiatric Case Register (OPCR). The person records of deaths and hospital discharges held by the Oxford Record Linkage Study (ORLS) wee used to examine the following items of information for members of this group: details of discharges from an surgical operations performed in Oxfordshire non-psychiatric hospitals in a 6-year period before and a 4-year period after the date of first inclusion in the OPCR, and details of deaths in a 4-year period after the date of first inclusion in the OPCR. The numbers of deaths, discharges and operatio..