Coronary heart disease in hospitalized mental patients. An electrocardiographic prevalence study

: Altogether 1707 permanently hospitalized patients aged from 40 to 69, from 8 psychiatric hospitals in Germany, were investigated for the occurrence of electrocardiographic signs of coronary heart diseases. ECG changes which indicate a past infarction or a coronary insufficiency with great reliability were found almost not at all in patients under the age of 50, in men aged from 50 to 59 years in 7.0%, and aged from 60-69 in 11.8% of cases. In women of corresponding ages the figures were 3.8 and 10.8% respectively. Compared with a non-psychiatric population, there were suggestions of a slightly higher prevalence of coronary heart diseases in the psychiatric patients.