Dead and forgotten--postmortem time before discovery as indicator of social isolation and inadequate mental healthcare in schizophrenia.

The psychiatric care of patients with schizophrenia has changed dramatically following the "deinstitutionalization" of mental health care in many Western countries. In a study of forensic autopsies in the Swedish city of Malmö between 1952 and 2005, we found an increase over time in the number of patients with schizophrenia whose bodies were not discovered until late after death, which correlated closely with the decrease in the number of hospital beds in the psychiatric services used by this group of patients. This indicates a strong increase in the social isolation and unavailability of adequate mental health care for patients with schizophrenia.