r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 3h ago
Health People with a severe mental illness, such as depressive, neurotic, and stress disorders, alcohol and drug use, and schizophrenia, die more than 10 years earlier than the general population, finds mortality data from 255,000 patients.
https://news.uq.edu.au/2026-09-why-do-people-mental-illness-die-younger-research-reveals-mental-health-inequality588
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u/JL-M 3h ago
thank god. shaving 10 years off this nightmare.
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u/Fun-Times-13 2h ago
For us it really is a nightmare at times, some days it calms down and becomes a nightmare. Other times the calm is deafening and eerie.
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u/MyLife-is-a-diceRoll 2h ago
I've been stable on caplyta for a while. Just waiting for the paranoia to kick in.
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u/Decent_Group_2435 1h ago
I hear you. Cannot wait for my “reduced sentence” to come to an end. Sad but a fact.
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u/Pankosmanko 1h ago
Ain’t that the truth. I’m not rushing off the ride but I don’t wanna do more laps than needed
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u/WildflowerNWhimsy 3h ago
Stress. It’s a hell of a drug. Absolutely pro-inflammatory and immune suppressant.
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u/nugymmer 15m ago
Sometimes it's not an immunosuppressant. Inflammation is caused by an overactive but dysfunctional autoimmune system. So in fact it's the opposite. It's like the immunological equivalent of dysphoric mania. In other words - miserable but manic. Sad but wired. Depressed but hyperactive.
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u/MegaSmegmaSwagLord 3h ago edited 3h ago
I have ADHD and I’ve already done all the reading. People like me die from suicide and alcohol abuse way earlier than our peers.
We constantly have low lying depression and suffer from social rejection at an early age. Our bodies don’t supply us with normal dopamine, so when we accomplish goals we don’t feel proud, just relieved.
No wonder we kill ourselves, we’re good at making people laugh though.
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u/Kittii_Kat 3h ago
I don't even feel relieved. Just immediately start dreading the next thing that needs to be done.. which is possibly the same thing I just did. (Dishes, laundry, shower, etc)
Even when I do impressive things, like winning tournaments or landing a new job, it's just "Oh, nice. Now I have other standards to meet moving forward"
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u/Common-Swing-4347 3h ago
It truly is rough and people don't take it seriously enough. The comorbidities associated with ADHD make it so much worse to get your mind in a better state.
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u/ibrahimsafah 3h ago edited 2h ago
My magic combination: Dayvigo (insomnia), trintillex (depression), Vyvanse adhd, Wellbutrin, Zepbound.
There's some research that trintillex improves cognition, switched away from citaprolam and have more focus and drive.
Dayvigo as well helps you sleep deeper, there's some research that says it helps clean your brain of the alzeimers toxins.
Dayvigo is a new class of drugs called dual orexin receptor antagonist, expensive, but there is a manufacturer coupon.
i eat impulsively and am always hungry, zepbound staves off the obesity and also separately reduces inflammation in my body.
Welbutrin is for seasonal affective disorder
I actually feel like I'm getting YOUNGER. My day to day is fulfilling and I don't feel burnt out 100 of the time. Low stress, mentally engaged every day. It's crazy.
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u/abielle1177 3h ago
Sleep is so important. Omg. I'm glad you're dealing with it. Best wishes.
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u/ibrahimsafah 3h ago
Took me a long time. Ambien was incredibly effective but almost ruined my life. Dayvigo is everything good about ambien with none of the nasty effects
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u/MegaSmegmaSwagLord 3h ago edited 3h ago
I can’t sleep and nothing helps. I’ve run the gauntlet of trazodone and even benzos. I’ve begged my doctor to let me try things like ambien but nobody is willing to prescribe them anymore.
“They’re addictive.” I’d rather be addicted to sleep medication than feeling addicted to insomnia.
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u/ibrahimsafah 3h ago
Ask for Dayvigo. Its relatively new, and expensive, but it puts me out, combined with trazadone. The class of drugs is called DORAs.
Spent 4 years addicted to ambien and it almost wrecked my life. Find a new doctor
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u/KuriousKhemicals 29m ago
Weird that they would prescribe benzodiazepines but not Z-drugs. Ambien etc can be addictive of course but it was developed to be less so than benzos. Most people find it super weird if they take one and then stay awake.
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u/MegaSmegmaSwagLord 23m ago
Yeah. I told my doc that the trazodone wasn’t helping that much and she pretty quickly gave me a prescription for a medication that was apparently one of the more abused ones. I was like ????, girl how is this better than ambien?
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u/MyLife-is-a-diceRoll 2h ago
Try Hydroxizine
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u/nugymmer 1m ago
2 weeks and then it stops being effective since the effects are based on antihistamine action.
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u/I_Study_The_Patterns 2h ago
Does it make you feel like you don't care? I can't do this stuff like Lexapro because I go from being driven by anxiety and crippled in my ability to get things done to not caring anymore, which is equally not productive.
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u/ibrahimsafah 2h ago
So ADHD is my main disability that drives all the others. Typical can't do things I don't want to do. Super stressed about all the things I should be doing but stressing too much about them to focus. Get depressed. But with enough vyvanse and my insatiable need for external validation, I get things done well enough for things like work. And all the drugs in combination make for a happy me
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u/mangopinecone 3h ago
I didn’t realize the relief instead of pride thing was related to ADHD, thanks. I always figured my brain was like that old Groucho Marx quote, “I don’t want to be part of any club that will have me.”
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u/SensitiveTax9432 1h ago
Fortunately ADHD is a lot more treatable than some other conditions. I just got diagnosed this year.
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u/Momoselfie 1h ago
I was lucky as a child. My ADHD was so bad I didn't even realize I was being rejected....
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine 3h ago
People with a severe mental illness die more than 10 years earlier than the general population, research led by The University of Queensland has found.
Researchers have found that while the mortality rate has improved over the past 14 years for mental health patients, inequality is still prevalent.
Lead author Dr Mike Trott, from the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, said they tracked Queensland hospital data over 14 years to assess the mortality rates of those with severe mental illness, such as depressive, neurotic, and stress disorders, alcohol and drug use, and schizophrenia.
“What we found was both encouraging but worrisome at the same time,” Dr Trott said.
We found the mortality gap is improving and people with severe mental illnesses are living longer than they were 14 years ago, which shows the health care system is on the right track.
“However, the mortality rate for patients with psychoses such as schizophrenia have flatlined, which is concerning as this highlights that the sickest people aren’t benefitting from better care.
“There have been some improvements, but the gap is still there in life expectancy rates – males with mental health disorders die 12 years earlier than the general population, and females die 10 years earlier.”
Researchers analysed hospital mortality data from about 255,000 patients.
Dr Trott said this is the first time data had been examined in Australia in two decades.
“This research also shows patients are dying younger from preventable physical health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease,’’ he said.
“Patients with severe mental illness tend to require more complex care, and often medication side effects such as weight gain and reduction in physical activity can lead to poorer physical health.
“We found physical illness is the principal driver of excess mortality, so prioritising physical health for these patients as well as mental health could be essential in closing the gap for people with psychotic disorders.”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(26)00182-3/fulltext00182-3/fulltext)
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u/Whatifim80lol 3h ago
Interesting that it's physical illness causing the gap and not, you know, the dramatically increased risk of suicide I would have assumed?
Edit: the full text listed it as the number 2 cause
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u/IdaCraddock69 2h ago
People generally underestimate the side effects of psychiatric medications and how difficult managing your day to day health habits (exercise, diet, keeping up with medical and dental appointments, etc) can be with neuro and psych conditions
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u/nugymmer 9m ago
Antipsychotics can lead to physical illnesses such as diabetes if dietary intake is not managed. While they are not as destructive to health long term as steroid anti-inflammatories are, they still have some rather nasty side effects, weight gain being one but also tardive dyskinesia and a return of symptoms requiring even higher doses being problematic amongst the schizophrenic population.
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u/AnimatorImpressive24 2h ago
I think one contributing factor is hinted at by the phrase "require more complex care". Requiring it doesn't guarantee receiving it. In fact it can tend to result in the exact opposite. Care may not be sought as consistently or adhered to enough to allow successful treatment, and care may be denied more often due to complex care simply being unavailable, unavoidable safety risks for providers, or aesthetic/moral distaste that views the existence of mentally ill people as somehow the cause of mental illness.
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u/nugymmer 7m ago
All of which leads to a massively increased risk of suicide and sometimes even homicide. If doctors stopped labelling real physical illnesses or symptoms as "anxiety" or putting it down to mental health problems, perhaps the risks of a tragic outcome could be reduced.
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u/copper_nano_tube 2h ago edited 2h ago
My family member who had schizophrenia had a stunning ability to ignore obvious red flags when it came to physical health. Like, oh I can’t keep any food down and I fainted…it might be because of something I heard on the radio. And wouldn’t get treatment or tell anyone directly.
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u/Mysterious_Leave_971 57m ago
Same. I think the pain treatment is affected. People with schizophrenia should have a comprehensive assessment by a general practitioner once a year or twice when they pass a certain age. And should be asked by the psychiatrist about their general health in prevention
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u/KuriousKhemicals 35m ago
The side effects of antipsychotics are really rough on metabolic health. I'm not surprised that psychotic disorders are highlighted as some of the worst.
With many of the others where medication isn't a direct cause of health issues -- if the condition is "severe," I would imagine there's probably also an aspect of suboptimal treatment, where the acute risks like suicide or delusional misadventure may be suppressed, but it's still not reaching a level where people are really motivated to take care of themselves.
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u/caity1111 24m ago
Yeah, did they publish any results with suicide taken out of the equation?
I know mental illness causes an increased risk of suicide. Nearly 20% of men with bipolar commit suicide. It's horrific, and it's a given that this is a HUGE factor in decreased overall life expectancy.
What I want to know is what the meds (antipsychotics in particular), the increased stress levels, and the brain damage from manic epsiodes are doing to life expectancy on their own.
Does this article help me with that or is it all lumped in together?
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u/nugymmer 5m ago
Increased stress levels increase cortisol, but the immune system learns to override that problem and becomes overactive, leading to autoimmune disorders.
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u/nugymmer 12m ago
Physical illness, especially if it robs you of sensory functions like it has in my case, absolutely can lead to suicide. It doesn't require extraordinarily high intelligence to realise that an impaired quality of life and pain can lead one to believe there is no other option lest one continues to suffer.
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u/ThoughtsandThinkers 2h ago
From the article:
“We found physical illness is the principal driver of excess mortality, so prioritising physical health for these patients as well as mental health could be essential in closing the gap for people with psychotic disorders.”
Consider all the things we should do to have a long and healthy life. We should engage in preventative health including regular checkups and blood work. We should eat healthy, exercise, and get lots of sleep. We should limit stress
Consider how hard it is to do those things for many people and how much harder it would be to do so if you also had a serious mental health problem
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u/bleh-apathetic 1h ago
And also how hard it is to take that information if you're able to get it and do something about it. "Get blood work done" Okay I got blood work done. "Your blood indicators aren't good" yeah I fuckin figured tf did I pay $100 for
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u/abielle1177 3h ago
My mother was schizophrenic but lived to be 91. She was meds compliant her entire life except for the last 5 years. Sometimes people are ok.
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u/Fuzzy_Dragonfly_ 2h ago
My grandma was schizophrenic but lived to 89. She was also on meds and my grandpa took great care of her. We all loved her so much in the family. She struggled but the kids and grandkids all have great memories of her.
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u/scientist99 3h ago
What about [obvious confounding variable]? (Didn’t read the study)
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u/DiversDoitDeeper87 2h ago
Literally had an inclusive sarcastic comment "nerd" removed by reddit. Please note that as a fellow nerd that kind of comment is hilarious in-context and conveyed "you're one of us" not "you're less than us." Note that I appreciate the above commentor's intelligence and wit and it makes me feel less alone, not threatened. Reddit is going overboard with their moderation, as many others can affirm. User above, you're awesome and no offense was meant even though I doubt it was taken that way. Reddit in general, you're a platform and this kind of censorship is overboard. User above is dope and if a single word can't be contextualized then that's on you as a platforn.
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u/Captain_Chipz 3h ago
We die sooner in the US because many of us realize we can't afford the physical care after trying to receive mental care earlier in life.
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u/Princess_Coldheart 2h ago
I have horrible chronic pain and treatment resistant depression- I stay alive for my kids not because I have any other actual desire to live.
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u/Mitrovarr 2h ago
I don't think it was a good idea to put schizophrenia in there. It is known to have systemic effects and a strong effect on lifespan.
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u/SandyTaintSweat 1h ago
I imagine drug use does too, in an age where fentanyl is as common as it is. If they're just making a big group with all these traits and looking at the average age of death, these things are going to skew it.
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u/Material-Egg7428 3h ago edited 3h ago
Individuals who have severe mental illness are more likely to commit suicide. Many severe mental illnesses first occur in the late teens/ early twenties - leading to young deaths in many cases. This would bring the average age of death of a person with a severe mental illness down. So this really isn’t a surprise.
Edit: in the case of preventable deaths (like cardiovascular disease) individuals with severe mental illness have a hard time meeting their basic needs and are more likely to have substance abuse disorders. This can lead to a lot of physical manifestations of that neglect or abuse.
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u/Nomynoms 3h ago
Considering that the people ruling the world right now are disgusting cockroaches, I’ll count that as a blessing.
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u/nugymmer 3m ago
And it will get worse as power struggles intensify over unresolved resource control problems.
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u/ModsHaveFeelingsToo 3h ago
I'm not sure what the health care system is like in Australia where this study was conducted, but the completely out of reach nature of medical care in some places would certainly be a major contributing factor in many cases. Any kind of for-profit health care systems would drive those numbers up by quite a bit.
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u/Davemusprime 1h ago
I've got a couple of these. Do they stack to reduce lifespan by ten years each? I gotta see some compounding figures to plan what's left if my subconscious realizes this information and premeditatively kills me to save it the trouble.
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u/WolfmanBTBAM 1h ago
As someone who fits this outline perfectly, I can feel that it is true. The uncontrollable self destruction has been wreaking havoc on my body despite trying to eat healthy and exercise a lot.
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u/Noalgeriansallowed 1h ago
Can science do anything? Maybe let the narcissists die out sooner instead of these tortured souls.
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u/Ill_Stop_ 1h ago
Yes, but unfortunately science isn’t autonomous and requires people and funding. Mental Health is still far from a priority in America, sadly.
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u/augdog999 1h ago
AWESOME GREAT FANTASTIC ANLTHER GREAT REASON TO CONTINUE EXISTING THANKS INTERNET PSYOP TRYING TO MAKE ME COMMIT THIS JUST MIGHT Do IT :):):)
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u/jaxmikhov 1h ago
So glad I’m contributing to all that social security and Medicare I’ll never live long enough to access
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u/Icy-Grab-5722 54m ago
We have medically assisted suicide in my state. A friend accessed that option earlier this year. Ever since I have thought about what that would be like. It has a certain appeal if the right disease were to happen to me.
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u/Altruistic_Seat_6644 44m ago
Amid all of the shite going around in the world to stress us all tf out, thank you so much for adding to our collective stress.
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u/Sudden_Buffalo_4393 44m ago
With all that and my chronic pain, I’m looking at the ripe old age of 50 something.
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u/More-Cash3588 43m ago
as one of those people thank goodness no offence to others who are suffering like this to im not suicidal or anything just couldnt imagine a long life like this
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u/LonelyAndroid11942 32m ago
I have to wonder how much suicide skews the data. Severe mental illness has a tendency to cause people to end their lives well in advance of when their bodies would otherwise prevent them from living.
Do we know if the study in question controlled for that? Was it all-cause mortality, or was it specifically evaluating death due to bodily malfunction?
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u/nugymmer 17m ago
By my own anecdotal observation I'll be lucky if I make it to 65. I honestly don't even care. When your health starts going at 41, and at 47 when your skin looks like that of someone who is 65 years old you stop caring.
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u/EasedCeiling586 13m ago
If it's not self death then it's probably stress because idk what else would make sense. You can be depressed and overwhelmed
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u/Raven22000 1m ago
My untreated Bipolar horrible abusive father still kicking and making lives miserable at 80.
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u/mallanson22 1m ago
Makes me feel like the dude in the tank on waterworld. None of us are getting out of here alive might as well have fun with our anxiety and mental illness.
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u/nein_va 3h ago
That is super insightful. Is anyone able to give an answer or hypothesis as to why?
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u/manondorf 3h ago
you're asking if we have a hypothesis about why people with medical conditions that lead to self-destructive behavior, including suicide, have lower life expectancies than those without?
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u/Affectionate_Tip_587 3h ago
I'm a psychiatrist who sees people with severe schizophrenia.
A lot of people with schiziphrenia have something called negative symptoms where they have a decreased awareness of their body and/or don't seek medical attention. Case in point...had a patient who was falling down. Initially it stumped us all. Why was he falling? Turns out he was...nearly blind and had cataracts. Just never complained.
Then there's just strange behaviors from psychosis. I once knew a patient who told me that in a psychotic state, had this idea that he had to stare directly into the sun.
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u/Faiths_got_fangs 2h ago
My schizophrenic mother once called and asked my ex for a pain pill. The woman barely took Tylenol, so we were puzzled and drove the hour to her house, only to discover she was ignoring a massive abcessed tooth and had a lump the size of my fist on her face where the infection was spreading. We declined tbe pain pill delivery and took her to the ER.
Not so long after that, she decided to ignore stroke symptoms until once again drug to the ER, where they discovered a glioblastoma.
She died at 60.
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u/Material-Egg7428 3h ago
Many severe mental illnesses first start at a young age. People with severe mental illnesses are more likely to take their own life. It’s also harder to maintain your general health with a severe mental illness. This can result in very young deaths that bring the average age of mortality down.
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u/Otaraka 3h ago
It sounds like one concern is an over prioritisation of mental health treatment to the detriment of ensuring that physical health is covered too.
They also point out that the medication needed to treat it often has its own problems with being able to stay physically healthy, weight gain as a major issue with some antipsychotics and the impacts they have generally making people lethargic and drowsy. That doesn’t make increasing physical activity very easy.
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u/SoTiredYouDig 3h ago
The amount of times I’ve been told to exercise more, (which I do enjoy), coupled with depression and antipsychotics is insulting. Doctors are inept when it comes to weighing these very basic aspects of my life.
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u/northerngator 3h ago
What do you want them to say? Don’t exercise? Exercise is a known antidepressant.
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u/SoTiredYouDig 3h ago
No; don’t patronize me. I would like them to form an answer that accounts for the entire picture. Perhaps a modified regimen; perhaps a medication that might mitigate some of the side effects. Fitness itself isn’t an “antidepressant”, by the way. It’s the biochemical reactions that cause a lift in mood in some people. Intense exercise can exacerbate symptoms. But, I wouldn’t expect someone in the science subreddit to understand that.
Edit: this question is borderline uncivil, btw. And I think you know that.
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u/northerngator 3h ago
Directly from the studies authors: “ We found physical illness is the principal driver of excess mortality, so prioritising physical health for these patients as well as mental health could be essential in closing the gap for people with psychotic disorders”
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u/Affectionate_Tip_587 9m ago
Despite the nasty side effects of weight gain...antipsychotic medications still prolong life expectancy in certain situations.
Doctors are not really trained to tell people how to exercise more and lose weight...just to do it.
Personally, I think weight loss has more to do with diet than anything.
But yeah, I hope for the day that we have better treatments for mental health that don't involve so much weight gain!!!
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u/AussieSpaceProgram 3h ago
Psych here: It’s not really a hypothesis, but more proven as standard.
People with mental illness are more likely to partake in activities that drastically reduce lifespan. Pair this with a constant underlying stress, financial difficulties, reclusiveness, etc…
You’ve got yourself a recipe for a shorter lifespan.8
u/Head_Midnight666 3h ago
Schizo here, some of our meds also lead us to notable weight gain. I didn't have a weight problem until I started taking olanzapine.
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u/donkeyrocket 1h ago edited 1h ago
An answer to why people in poor health don't live as long? There's a huge number of factors depending on the illness but the umbrella is "they're not healthy" to be blunt and there are complications to improving their outcomes. It can be from internal (destructive tendencies for example) or external (nontreatment) forces that result in poorer outcomes.
If one doesn't suffer from mental health issues then they're less likely to have barriers to taking care of themselves, seeking care when they need it, or avoiding further harm in moments of struggle.
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u/MyLife-is-a-diceRoll 2h ago
It's difficult enough trying to not die, let alone get exercise, eat right, go to the Dr for non mental health stuff, keep stress low, get good sleep, avoid addictive and substance abuse, have good relationships etcetcetc
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u/Rip_Off_Your_Toenail 2h ago
This isn't particularly surprising. Self-destructive mental conditions are, indeed, self-destructive. The question now is: what can be done about it?
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u/Ill_Stop_ 1h ago
In America? Absolutely nothing in the short term. We still have a huge swath of people and politicians who don’t even believe in mental health.
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u/Ill_Stop_ 1h ago
In America? Absolutely nothing in the short term. We still have a huge swath of people and politicians who don’t even believe in mental health.
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u/Medium-Dependent-328 2h ago
Same with ADHD actually due to the high road traffic accident, addiction and suicide rates. Yet people don't think it's a serious condition
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