People with serious mental illness (SMI) die, on average, 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population, with a pooled life expectancy around 64 years, significantly lower than the average due to higher rates of physical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory issues, often exacerbated by lifestyle factors, medication side effects, and disparities in healthcare access. The specific life expectancy varies by disorder, with substance-use disorders showing the shortest lifespan (around 57 years) and neurotic disorders the longest (around 70 years).
Compared to national figures, all disorders were associated with substantially lower life expectancy: 8.0 to 14.6 life years lost for men and 9.8 to 17.5 life years lost for women. Highest reductions were found for men with schizophrenia (14.6 years lost) and women with schizoaffective disorders (17.5 years lost).
Serious Mental Illness (SMI) refers to diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders causing severe functional impairment, substantially limiting major life activities like work, relationships, or self-care, and includes conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, often presenting with symptoms like psychosis, severe mood changes, and disorganized behavior.
Life expectancy for people with intellectual disability has long been known to be lower than that of the general population, and now UNSW Sydney researchers can reveal the reasons why.
Researchers have consistently shown that mortality rates in patients with a severe mental illness (SMI) are excessively high. SMI patients die about 10–20 years earlier than the general population (1–5).
Those with mental disorders are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, such as, smoking, poor nutrition, and lower levels of physical activity. These behaviours contribute to the high rates of chronic medical conditions.
If you think depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder are the mental illnesses most commonly linked to an early death, you're wrong. Eating disorders—including anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating— are the most lethal mental health conditions, according to research in Current Psychiatry Reports.
Certain lifestyle habits can negatively affect your physical and mental health, shortening your potential lifespan.
What is the life expectancy of someone with bipolar disorder? Experts have established that living with any mental health condition reduces your life expectancy by anywhere from 7–10 years . The life expectancy for someone with bipolar disorder is approximately 67 years old.
What is the Hardest Mental Illness to Live With?
A simple framework to intuitively understand what may constitute a mental illness is the 5Ds. Deviation, Duration, Distress, Dysfunction, and Danger.
Severely mentally impaired refers to a person who has a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning, however caused, which appears to be permanent. This may include conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
Giving Up On Someone With Mental Illness: When It's Okay
The fourth, and often final stage of mental illness is the most severe. This stage occurs when an individual's mental illness becomes life-threatening. It is during this stage that self-harm becomes the most likely. Additionally, aggressive behavior toward others and lashing out at situations also become more frequent.
50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
Alcohol: Drinking too much alcohol can dehydrate and damage your skin over time, leading to signs of premature aging. Poor sleep: Studies show that low quality (or not enough) sleep makes your cells age faster. Stress: When you're stressed, your brain pumps out cortisol, a stress hormone.
“Smoking is one of the most harmful things people can do to themselves,” Dr. Maniar says. Blood flow drops, slashing oxygen that fuels the heart, which compensates by spiking blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, and can lead to hardened and narrowed arteries and blood clots causing cardiovascular disease.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J) adds about 33 minutes to your healthy lifespan per serving, according to a University of Michigan study that measured life expectancy impacts of over 5,850 foods using the Health Nutritional Index (HNI). This sandwich tops the list for adding time, with nuts and seeds also being highly beneficial (around 25 mins) and processed items like hot dogs subtracting time.
Out of all the mental disorders including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, which do you think is the deadliest? A review of nearly fifty years of research confirms that Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses (Arcelus, Mitchel, Wales, & Nelson, 2011).
According to psychology, there are specific personality types that are notoriously difficult to live with. These can include the passive-aggressive communicator, the relentless critic, or the energy-draining pessimist. However, recognizing these traits is the first step toward managing the stress they cause.
These severe and persistent mental illnesses include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other severe forms of depression, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
If you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency has also been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.
Researchers have consistently reported that people with mental disorders have elevated mortality compared with the general population. In 1937, Malzberg1 reported that psychiatric inpatients had a mortality rate that was 6 times greater than the rate in the general population of New York.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has long been believed to be a disorder that produces the most intense emotional pain and distress in those who have this condition. Studies have shown that borderline patients experience chronic and significant emotional suffering and mental agony.