Schizophrenia and appendicitis

People with schizophrenia often suffer more from ill health than other people and a new Taiwanese study has added another health problem to the list of conditions schizophrenics are more vulnerable to. Researchers looked at the records of 100,000 people, aged 15 and over, hospitalised for appendicitis between 1997 and 2001. They found that 46.7% of schizophrenic, 43.4% of people with other mental-health problems but only 25.1% of other people went on to develop a ruptured appendix. After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and hospital characteristics the increased risk associated with other mental-health problems disappeared. However, once all the other factors were taken into account patients with schizoprenia were almost three times as likely to suffer from a ruptured appendix as the rest of the population.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2007/11/15/mental-disorders-and-appendicitis/1540.html