Early life mental disorders raise risk of dying from illnesses: study

AUCKLAND: Mental disorders early in life can lead to deadly physical illnesses such as cancer, strokes and heart disease, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of Auckland, the University of Michigan and Duke University in the United States examined hospital records of nearly 2.35 million New Zealanders born between 1928 and 1978 and aged from 10 to 60 at the start of the period.

They analysed 30 years of each person’s hospital records.

The study found people admitted to hospital for a mental disorder had increased risk of dying within the 30year period, regardless of whether they had also been in hospital for their physical health.

Dunedin psychiatrist Christopher Gale, who stressed he had not read the study, said he was seeing patients with mental health disorders dying in their 50s.

‘‘These are people with severe mental health issues getting pulmonary disease, dying of heart disease or strokes, and they are in their 50s.

“It’s really, really tragic for their families.”

One of the study’s authors, Associate Prof Barry Milne, of the University of Auckland social research centre Compass, said the link could be down to health behaviours of people with mental disorders such as smoking, exercise and diet, or it could be that people with a mental health condition might not be getting as good healthcare as they should.

“Or there’s a whole range of specific mechanisms, such as mood disorders, leading to stress and inflammation. Neuritis might lead to high blood pressure.”

The findings showed the need to screen all patients presenting with mental disorders for symptoms of chronic physical illnesses.

“This suggests the importance of joinedup healthcare services, for example, embedding physical health screening and prevention into mental health treatment.”

Prof Milne said he expected to find a link between poor mental health and chronic physical conditions, but he was surprised to see how consistent the findings were across all mental health conditions.

“I would have thought psychosis would have had the strongest association, but really it was similar across all mental health disorders that we looked at.”

The researchers examined presentations of substance use disorder, psychosis, mood disorder, neurotic disorder, selfharm and others.

Chronic physical conditions diagnosed in inpatient hospitals, which affected 20% of the population, included gout, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), traumatic brain injury, stroke, myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease and cancer.

The findings also reinforced the need to detect and treat mental health issues early in order to reduce premature deaths, Prof Milne said.