Poor mental health may shorten lifespan

Washington - People with symptoms of mental health problems have higher risk of death from several major causes, including heart disease, according to a large-scale population based study.

The findings may prompt further research into the way doctors treat patients with even mild psychological problems.

A team of researchers from UCL (University College London) and the University of Edinburgh analysed data from over 68,000 adults aged 35 years and over who took part in the Health Survey for England from 1994 to 2004.

Participants in the study had been evaluated for mental health problems using a recognised scale ranging from no symptoms to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The team then looked to see whether people who reported these symptoms during the study were more likely to have died over an 8-year period. They also examined whether there was an association with death from cardiovascular disease, cancer or from external causes of death.

Their results reveal that people who experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression had a lower life expectancy than those without any such symptoms. Even people with minor symptoms of mental health problems seemed to have a higher risk of death from several major causes, including cardiovascular disease.

“These associations also remained after we did our best to take into account other factors such as weight, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and diabetes. Therefore this increased mortality is not simply due to people with higher levels of psychological distress having poorer health behaviours,” explained Dr David Batty, a Wellcome Trust research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL and senior author on the study.

There is a possibility that mental health problems may be associated with biological changes in the body that increase the risk of diseases such as heart disease.

In this study, approximately a quarter of people suffered from minor symptoms of anxiety and depression, however, these patients do not usually come to the attention of mental health services. The researchers said that their findings could have implications for the way minor mental health problems are treated.

Dr Tom Russ, Alzheimer Scotland clinical research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The fact that an increased risk of mortality was evident, even at low levels of psychological distress, should prompt research into whether treatment of these very common, minor symptoms can reduce this increased risk of death.”

The study has been just published in the British Medical Journal.