CV risk calculators failing people with mental illness: study

Patients' actual risk may be much higher, particularly for women
Reuters Health
woman with cardiac condition

Cardiovascular disease risk assessment tools that do not include severe mental illness as a predictor can significantly underestimate risk, researchers say.

New Zealand researchers used data from the PREDICT general practice database to compare the observed risk of a first CVD event among people with severe mental illness with the risk predicted by algorithms for the general population.