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.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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Mental Illness = Shorter Life (12/3/2008)

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