Although there’s no news here (since the original study was published two years ago), TIME has run a thoughtful piece about the reasons why people diagnosed with serious mental illness typically have a shorter lifespan. The primary reasons, when you think about it, aren’t all that surprising:
- Smoking - People with severe mental illness (typically schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder) often spend more time in psychiatric hospitals and are 3 times more likely to smoke than the general population
- Obesity - People with any one of these disorders are two to three times more likely to be obese — weight gain mostly caused by the very treatments they’re on to help with the mental illness!
Obesity also leads to significantly increased rates of diabetes (twice that of the general population) amongst the most seriously mentally ill.
While many mental health professionals and doctors are still missing the boat when it comes to these serious health concerns (rarely spending much time focusing on the need to treat them as well), some organizations are trying to help:
Based on the participants’ responses, NAMI [NYC] created a program called Six Weeks to Wellness, a once-a-week class that teaches everything from proper nutrition to controlling anxiety through yoga and meditation. “It’s been wildly popular,” says Linn. “It helps to say, ‘Your health is important to us.’ They’ve never heard that before.”
It’s a good start. But we need to do even more. People need to know that these are very real and very serious health concerns that shouldn’t just be brushed aside when treating a mental disorder. More focus should be given to them — especially obesity, since it can directly lead to diabetes — and helping people learn more effective strategies to keep the weight down, and the cigarettes out of their pocket.
Read the full article: Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?
Michigan State Government information packet: Six Weeks to Wellness (PDF) — While this isn’t the program NAMI is using (we couldn’t find a link to that program), it is nonetheless a helpful coordinator/participant package that one can use to get started on one’s own healthy wellness program.
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Mental Illness = Shorter Life (12/3/2008)
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One Comment to
“Mental Illness = Shorter Life”
i was once in a day program. we were brought to the hospital gym twice a week but serious exercise on the donated equipment was not allowed because of hospital admins fear of personal injury lawsuits. there is a culture of warehousing people which can only lead to poorer health.
i should also mention, although it is not politically correct to do so now that most campuses are tobacco-free, that smoking has some therapeutic effects for some groups with mental illness. smoking schizophrenics are merely self-medicating as the cigarettes calm them and allow them to focus a bit.
i do not know of any mental hospitals that have endocrinologists on call yet endocrinological side effects are rampant from the use of psychopharmacologicals meds. these effects include weight gain, anorgasmic affect and yes, diabetes.
whose fault is that? certainly not the low-income patient!
then of course there is the issue of poor diet and the inability to take care of oneself well. and we can’t forget poor dentistry as a result of dry mouth–there is a presumed corellation between plaque in the mouth and heart disease, so the mentally ill are more likely to keel over and die.
this doesn’t seem to be news in the usa, just business as usual.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 3 Dec 2008
