Citation

Baughman KR, Bonfine N, Dugan SE, Adams R, Gallagher M, Olds RS, Piatt E, Ritter C. Community Ment. Health J. 2015; 52(4): 424-432.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Northeast Ohio Medical University, 1409 State Route 44, PO Box 95, Rootstown, OH, 44272, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10597-015-9973-2

PMID

26611625

Abstract

This study examines the prevalence of comorbid physical health conditions within a community sample of individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), compares them to a matched national sample without SMI, and identifies which comorbidities create the greatest disease burden for those with SMI. Self-reported health status, co-morbid medical conditions and perceived disease burden were collected from 203 adults with SMI. Prevalence of chronic health conditions was compared to a propensity-matched sample without SMI from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R). Compared to NCS-R sample without SMI, our sample with SMI had a higher prevalence of seven out of nine categories of chronic health conditions. Chronic pain and headaches, as well as the number of chronic conditions, were associated with increased disease burden for individuals with SMI. Further investigation of possible interventions, including effective pain management, is needed to improve the health status of this population.

Language: en