CHICAGO — Death due to cardiovascular disease dwarfs suicide as a cause of total years of potential life lost among patients with major mental illness, according to a five-state study.
Even though suicide is less common than cardiovascular disease, it tends to occur at a younger age, so the argument has been that it therefore accounts for a disproportionate burden in terms of lost potential. Not so, Dr. John W. Newcomer said at the American Psychiatric Association's Institute on Psychiatric Services.
“Patients with major mental illness are losing 25 years of life compared to the general population. And the largest percentage of those deaths comes from coronary heart disease,” said Dr. Newcomer, professor of psychiatry, psychology, and medicine and medical director of the center for clinical studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
He analyzed mortality data on public sector patients with major mental illness in five states over a 5-year period. The total number of years of potential life lost in this group, compared with life expectancy in the general population, was roughly 48,000, including 4,786 person-years of life lost because of suicide.
By comparison, coronary heart disease accounted for 14,871 years of potential life lost. Add in the nearly 1,500 years lost because of diabetes, 1,200 because of cerebrovascular disease, and deaths resulting from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—which shares several risk factors with coronary heart disease—and the total approaches 20,000 of the 48,000 years of potential life lost in patients with severe mental illness, he said.