Is there a link between major depression and an increased risk for early death due togeneral medical illnesses.
In the past, premature deaths associated with bipolar illness were attributed to unnatural causes, such as suicide, homicide, and accidents. Recent studies are showing that this may account for only a portion of premature death in these individuals.
People with bipolar disorder tend to have manic phases and depressed phases in their lives. During mania, they might be too wound up to sleep, their thoughts might race, and they might have boundless energy. During depression, they might feel painfully sad, hopeless, and immobilized.
Having a major mental illness such as bipolar disorder increases the risk of developing physical illness from poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise, substance abuse, and a lack of medical care.
Patients with a mental illness and a medical illness have more challenges managing their condition. Diabetes, for one requires a lot of selfcare, poor management can lead to more complications with the medical disorder leading to death.
Another factor to physical illness and early death in patients with bipolar disorder are the newer antipsychotics and mood stabilizers, which are now in widespread use.
Some new antipsychotic medications used to successfully treat bipolar disorders are safer and more comfortable for the patient in some ways than previous medications, but can cause weight gain leading to obesity and other metabolic changes that predispose people to Type 2 diabetes. Some mood stabilizers also cause weight gain and metabolic disorders.
These medications have fewer adverse effects than the older drugs, but they contribute to obesity and metabolic problems, diabetes, and heart disease,
Effective treatment of mental illness are bringing a new problem
Psychiatrists need to pay closer attention to patients' physical health. To effectively treat them for their mental-health problems but them to have them die prematurely from their medical diseases is becoming an epidemic.
Psychiatric staff are now hand with centers for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, and family-medicine practices. This is necessary because of the growing problems with the medical care of bipolar patients and the mentally ill in general.
New approaches to healthcare and wellness programs are being tested for preventing premature deaths associated with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.
Bipolar disorder appears to increase the risk for premature death due to medical illness, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, endocrine disorders, pulmonary disease.
Bipolar disorder is as big a risk factor for premature death as smoking.
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