Adults With Mental Illness Die 15-20 Years Earlier — SkimNews
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- Rethink Mental Illness found adults referred to specialist secondary mental health services are 4.8 times more likely to die before age 75, dying 15 to 20 years earlier than the wider population, largely from preventable physical conditions.
- The NHS data analysis reveals stark disease-specific inequalities: 6.3 times more likely to die from liver disease, 6 times from respiratory illness, 3.8 times from cardiovascular disease, 2.3 times from cancer, and 14.6 times from suicide.
- Cancer and cardiovascular disease deaths among working-age adults with mental illness have hit their highest levels since records began, each exceeding 24,000 deaths in the 2022–2024 reporting period, with the four leading physical diseases accounting for 56.5% of all deaths in this group.
- "Diagnostic overshadowing"—where physical symptoms are wrongly attributed to mental illness—is identified alongside poverty, poor housing, higher smoking rates, and medication-related weight gain as a key driver of excess mortality.
- Mark Winstanley, CEO of Rethink, called the findings "a scandal" and urged the upcoming cross-government mental health strategy to prioritize physical health checks, mental-health informed interventions, and peer support.
- Prof Subodh Dave, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said "Having a severe mental illness shouldn't be an early death sentence" and called for "concerted action" on smoking cessation and routine physical health checks.
- The Department of Health and Social Care said it is developing a new service framework and opening 100 new community mental health centres, with its mental health strategy due this week alongside the independent review of mental health, autism, and ADHD.
Why it matters: The report lands just before the government's independent review of mental health, autism, and ADHD, due this week. It identifies diagnostic overshadowing and fragmented care as drivers of premature deaths, giving the review concrete evidence to target physical health checks for a population already in frequent contact with NHS services.
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