Mortality in national psychiatric hospitals in Sudan : a nine year review of hospital deaths

Abstract EN

bjectives: The current study aimed to describe mortality rates and associated risks factors in national psychiatric hospitals in Sudan.

Method: A retrospective study, it involved the audit of all fatalities that took place during the study period in all national psychiatric hospitals in Sudan.

Results: From a total of 20,745 admissions to the main national psychiatric hospitals over a nine year period, 72 patients died during their hospital stay.

This was an average of 3.47 in one thousand admission episodes.

A total 62.5% of deaths occurred in the first seven to 10 days following admission.

Deceased patients were predominantly men 48 (66.6%) under the age of 40 years.

Conclusion: Infection and organic illnesses were the leading causes for inpatient mortality in the psychiatric hospitals studied.

Circulatory failure and cardiovascular related deaths constituted immediate cause of death in psychiatric hospitals in 20% of the current sample.

In total, 13.9% of all mortalities were clinically gauged due to neuroleptic malignant syndrome whilst suicide was the cause in less than 3% of deaths in all psychiatric hospitals studied.