Objective and Setting - The mortality of patients admitted to the General Hospital Psychiatric Ward of Pavia, Italy was studied for the period 1.1.1986-31.12.1991. Main outcome measures - Mortality was assessed using the standardized mortality ratio. The number of observed deaths was compared by sex, age group and cause of death with the number of expected deaths if the general population mortality of the same area were applied to our sample. Results - The result of this comparison was that the mortality through inpatients was three times higher than that of the general population. This overmortality has been observed with respect to natural causes of death as well as to unnatural causes. Particularly deaths from circulatory diseases, mental disorders and deaths by injuries and poisoning are overrepresented in both sexes.
