Mental illnesses as bad for you as heavy smoking

Many mental illnesses are as bad for you as smoking, with life expectancy for people with mental health problems less than that for heavy smokers, experts have found.

Serious mental illness can reduce a person’s life expectancy by 10 to 20 years, when the average reduction in life expectancy for heavy smokers is eight to 10, according to researchers from Oxford University.

They said mental health has not been the same public health priority as smoking.

The study, published in the journal World Psychiatry, analysed previous research on mortality risk for a whole range of problems — mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, dementia, autistic spectrum disorders, learning disability, and childhood behavioural disorders.

The authors examined 20 papers looking at 1.7m people and over 250,000 deaths.

They found the average reduction in life expectancy for people with bipolar disorder was between nine and 20 years, it was 10 to 20 years for schizophrenia, between nine and 24 years for drug and alcohol abuse, and around seven to 11 years for recurrent depression.

“We found that many mental health diagnoses are associated with a drop in life expectancy as great as that associated with smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day,” said Dr Seena Fazel of the department of psychiatry at Oxford University.

“There are likely to be many reasons for this.

“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.

“Many causes of mental health problems also have physical consequences and mental illness worsen the prognosis of a range of physical illnesses, especially heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

“Unfortunately, people with serious mental illnesses may not access healthcare effectively.

“All of this can be changed.

“There are effective drug and psychological treatments for mental health problems.

“We can improve mental health and social care provision. That means making sure people have straightforward access to health care, and appropriate jobs and meaningful daytime activities.

“It’ll be challenging, but it can be done.

“What we do need is for researchers, care providers and governments to make mental health a much higher priority for research and innovation.

“Smoking is recognised as a huge public health problem.

“There are effective ways to target smoking, and with political will and funding, rates of smoking-related deaths have started to decline.

“We now need a similar effort in mental health.”

Dr John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental health at the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, added: “People with mental health problems are among the most vulnerable in society. This work emphasises how crucial it is that they have access to appropriate healthcare and advice, which is not always the case.”