Mental Illness as Deadly as Heavy Smoking, Oxford Study

Researchers at the Oxford University say that mental diseases don't get much attention, despite being a major factor for reducing lifespan. The team says that people with mental disorders are more likely to die younger than chain smokers.

Smoking not only causes lung cancer, but also increases risk of cancers of liver, bowel, pancreas and bladder. Smokers, on an average, have 10-year lower lifespan than non-smokers. The new study from Oxford found that people with mental diseases have much lower life expectancy due to increased risk of suicide or drug abuse. However, these diseases rarely get public attention.

Researchers pulled out data for the review from 20 recent scientific studies on the subject. In all, researchers sifted through information on 1.7 million people.

Comparing mental disorders with smoking helps put the numbers in perspective, researchers told npr.

"It was useful to benchmark against something that has a very high mortality rate," said Dr Seena Fazel of the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, to npr.

According to the researchers, the average reduction in life expectancy for people with bipolar disorder was between nine and 20 years; nine and 24 years for drug and alcohol abuse; 10 to 20 years for schizophrenia and 11 years for 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," Fazel said in a news release.

Researchers say that mental healthcare must be give importance as it affects several people. There are drugs and therapies that can help recover from their illnesses and lead a healthy life.

The study is published in the journal World Psychiatry and funded by the Wellcome Trust.