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" Patients who have a history of psychiatric illness are at heightened risk of dying within 30 days of having surgery than those who go into the procedure in sound mental health, it has been suggested. Research carried out by experts at the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Centre looked into the records of more than 35,000 surgical patients admitted to intensive care units over a three-year-period to the autumn of 2006. Among these patients, one in four also suffered from a pre-diagnosed psychiatric illness, the most-common being depression, as well as bipolar disorder, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Notably, while no difference was seen in the post-surgical fortunes of this group and those patients with sound mental health when it came to procedures involving the circulatory, nervous or musculoskeletal systems, when it came to procedures carried out on the respiratory or digestive systems, marked differences were observed. Indeed, here the 30-day death rates were found to be considerably higher for patients with psychiatric illnesses. Commenting, Dr Thad E Abrams said: &amp;#039;Pre-existing psychiatric co-morbidity may serve as an indicator for greater severity of surgical risk.&amp;#039; According to the UK Mental Health Foundation, one in four adults will experience some sort of psychiatric problem in the course of a year. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/conditions/depression/news/a20169/mentally-ill-patients-at-heightened-risk-of-dying-after-surgery/>