Department of Psychiatry Reports Findings in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions (Nature and Extent of Physical Comorbidities Among Korean Patients With Mental Illnesses: Pairwise and Network Analysis Based on Health Insurance Claims Data): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2022 JUL 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Mental Health Diseases and Conditions is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Busan, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The nature of physical comorbidities in patients with mental illness may differ according to diagnosis and personal characteristics. We investigated this complexity by conventional logistic regression and network analysis.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Department of Psychiatry, “A health insurance claims data in Korea was analyzed. For every combination of psychiatric and physical diagnoses, odds ratios were calculated adjusting age and sex. From the patient-diagnosis data, a network of diagnoses was constructed using Jaccard coefficient as the index of comorbidity. In 1,017,024 individuals, 77,447 (7.6%) were diagnosed with mental illnesses. The number of physical diagnoses among them was 11.2, which was 1.6 times higher than non-psychiatric groups. The most noticeable associations were 1) neurotic illnesses with gastrointestinal/pain disorders and 2) dementia with fracture, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebrovascular accidents. Unexpectedly, the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was only scarcely found in patients with severe mental illnesses (SMIs). However, implicit associations between metabolic syndrome and SMIs were suggested in comorbidity networks. Physical comorbidities in patients with mental illnesses were more extensive than those with other disease categories.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “However, the result raised questions as to whether the medical resources were being diverted to less serious conditions than more urgent conditions in patients with SMIs.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Nature and Extent of Physical Comorbidities Among Korean Patients With Mental Illnesses: Pairwise and Network Analysis Based on Health Insurance Claims Data. Psychiatry Investigation, 2022;19(6):488-499. Psychiatry Investigation can be contacted at: Korean Neuropsychiatric Assoc, Rn 522, G-Five Central Plaza 1685-8 Seocho 4-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul, 137-882, South Korea.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Sam Yi Shin, Dept. of Psychiatry, Healer’s Hospital, Busan, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Ho Joon Kim and Seong Hoon Jeong.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2022.0068. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal Psychiatry Investigation is: Korean Neuropsychiatric Assoc, Rn 522, G-Five Central Plaza 1685-8 Seocho 4-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul, 137-882, South Korea.

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