Articles "Can depression shorten people's lives"
Key facts • People with severe mental disorders on average tend to die earlier than the general population. This is referred to as premature mortality. There is a 10-25 year life expectancy reduction in patients with severe mental disorders. • The vast majority of these deaths are due to chronic physical medical conditions such as cardiovascular, respiratory and infectious diseases, diabetes and hypertension. Suicide is another important cause of death. • Mortality rates among people with schizophrenia is 2 to 2.5 times higher than the general population. • People with bipolar mood disorders have high mortality rates ranging from 35% higher to twice as high as the general population. • There is a 1.8 times higher risk of dying associated with depression. People with severe mental illness do not receive the same quality of physical health care as the general population. • The majority of deaths of patients with severe mental illness that are due to ph...