Survival in a large elderly population of patients with dementia and other forms of psychogeriatric diseases.

Background: Dementia and other psychogeriatric diseases in elderly patients bring an increased risk of death. Better knowledge of prognosis in elderly patients affected by dementia or mental illness should be of great importance in order to improve care plans and assist in medical decisions.

Methods: We have investigated the survival time in 2,112 patients with dementia and other forms of psychogeriatric diseases, enrolled during 1990 to 2005 and followed up until 2009, and the influence of diagnoses, plasma homocysteine level, presence of vascular disease and renal impairment.

Results: The survival time after diagnosis in most diagnostic groups is about a third compared to an average population of similar age and sex. Age was the main predictor of survival time in all patients.

Conclusions: All diagnoses, except in patients with subjective cognitive impairments, showed an increased mortality. These estimates can be used for prognosis and planning for patients, carers, service providers and policy makers.