Mental illness such as anorexia and repeated depression can be as fatal as smoking, a research by Oxford University shows.
Researchers said that smoking 20 cigarettes a day reduced life expectancy by eight to 10 years. People with bipolar disorder saw an average decrease of between nine and 20 years, 10 to 20 years for schizophrenia and seven to 11 years for recurrent depression. Drug and alcohol abuse cuts between 9 and 24 years of lives.
For the study, researchers examined data from 20 studies that included more than 1.7 million people and 250,000 deaths.
The findings showed that all mental health conditions that were analysed led to higher death rates among sufferers compared with the general population, with a reduction in life expectancy of between seven and 24 years.
"People with mental health problems are among the most vulnerable in society. This work emphasizes how crucial it is that they have access to appropriate health care and advice, which is not always the case. We now have strong evidence that mental illness is just as threatening to life expectancy as other public health threats such as smoking," Dr. John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental health at the Wellcome Trust, said in a press release.
According to study author Dr Seena Fazel, there were possible reasons behind the study anlaysis. "High-risk behaviours are common in psychiatric patients, especially drug and alcohol abuse, and they are more likely to die by suicide. The stigma surrounding mental health may mean people aren't treated as well for physical health problems when they do see a doctor," she said.
Dr Fazel explained that several causes of mental illnesses also have physical consequences and it worsens the prognosis of a range of physical illnesses, especially heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
"There are effective ways to target smoking. We now need a similar effort in mental health."
The study was published in the journal 'World Psychiatry'.
