The Connection between Cardiac and Mental Disorder: Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Psychiatric Disorder.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common tachyarrhythmia in clinical practice, and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular complication and mortality. Several risk factors, such as old age, male sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, valvular disease, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, obesity, and elevated inflammatory marker concentrations have been proposed to increase the occurrences of AF, which contribute to high healthcare system utilization rates and socio-economic costs. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment AF is of substantial clinical value. Social stigma and discrimination previously added to the disability in patients with psychiatric disorders and delayed the understanding of its associated comorbidities. Illness prevention and advancement of mental health strategies in Taiwan help to solve the issue of social exclusion and clarify the co-existing underlying diseases. In this issue of Acta Cardiologica Sinica, Yang et al. investigated the prevalence of AF in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, two of the most common psychiatric disorders, and shed light on the connection between heart and mental disorder. The study also elucidated the impact of gender factors on the occurrences of AF by using community-based National Health Insurance inpatient database. The authors demonstrated several interesting findings which may have an important impact on future surveys of AF in patients with psychiatric disorders. THE PREVALENCE OF AF IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA AND BIPOLAR DISORDER