Dr Seena Fazel from Oxford University said: "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." The researchers found the average reduction in life expectancy in people with bipolar disorder is between nine and 20 years. It is 10 to 20 years for schizophrenia, nine and 24 years for drug and alcohol abuse, and around seven to 11 years for recurrent depression.
Mental illness can reduce life expectancy 'more than smoking'
BBC News online (Oxford), Unattributed, 23/05/2014
Radio: Phil Gayle and Friends, BBC Radio Oxford
Depression lowers life expectancy as much as smoking, says study
The Daily Telegraph, 23/05/2014, p.16, Rebecca Smith
Britain’s mentally ill have a North Korean lifespan
The Times, Hannah Devlin, 23/05/2014
Mental health life expectancy link
MSN News UK, via Press Association, 23/05/2014
Mental illness can be as bad for health as smoking
The Herald (Scotland), via Press Association, Ella Pickover, 23/05/2014
Mental health life expectancy link
Belfast Telegraph, Unattributed, 23/05/2014
Depression could knock 24 years off your life expectancy, research shows
Irish Independent, via The Daily Telegraph, Rebecca Smith, 23/05/2014
Depression as deadly as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, U.K. study says
National Post (Canada), via The Daily Telegraph, Rebecca Smith, 22/05/2014
Depression lowers life expectancy as much as smoking - study
New Zealand Herald, via The Daily Telegraph, Rebecca Smith, 23/05/2014
Mental illness 'as bad as smoking'
MSN News (New Zealand), via AAP newswire, 23/05/2014
Lebensgefahr Depression: Psychische Krankheiten können die Lebenserwartung deutlich senken – zum Teil mehr als starkes Rauchen
Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 23.05.2014
Mental Illness Can Shorten Lives More Than Chain-Smoking
The paper will appear in World Psychiatry Volume 13, Number 2 - June 2014
Get your pre-print here: Risks of all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders: a meta-review
(from: Forensic Psychiatry Webpage)