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"The loss of life expectancy associated with some serious mental health problems is the same or worse than that from smoking, People with mental health problems in Britain have the same life expectancy as the general population in North Korea and Bangladesh or people in Britain in the 1930s,"

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

23/05/2014, 06:00

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)

Also see University of Oxford News

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