University of Oxford psychiatrists have conducted studies and came up with new analysis that shows people who suffer from mental disorders that are serious has their life expectancy reduced by a decade or two. This rate is around the same with people who are heavy smokers. However, a lot of experts say mental health is not prioritized as much when it comes to public health. Dr. Fazel, a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, along with his colleagues, conducted studies that show a wide range of studies that put the death rate of mental disorders along side heavy smoking, which could require urgent care.
What the Studies Show
The team found that out of all the mental illnesses they took a look at, there was a mortality risk increase that was equal or even higher than the rates of heavy smoking. Take recurrent depression as an example. The reduced life expectancy totaled between 7-11 years while bipolar disorder’s was 9-20 years. Schizophrenics had a reduced life expectancy of 10-20 years while heavy smokers had an average of life expectancy reduction of 8-10 years. Out of all the speculations behind these figures, Dr. Fazel suggested that the problem lies on the tendency to deal with physical and mental conditions separately. Fazzel believes mental disorders have effects on physical bodies of patients; some that could even require an urgent care clinic.
Mental Health Priority Reduces Early Deaths
Fazel believes the prioritization of treating mental disorders could prevent patients’ early deaths. Along with his colleagues, Fazel encourages the governments, along with the social and health services, to put a priority that is much higher on finding out how services on mental health can stop early deaths, which can be done by putting up an urgent care near me.
Dr. Fazel believes that if people with mental disorders were given the same attention as those who have problems with smoking, then so many deaths could be prevented. Fazel believes with the rate political will, along with funding, mental health deaths would decline just as it did with deaths that are smoking-related. According to WHO, 14 percent of the disease global burden can be credited to neurological, mental and even substance use illnesses that are commonly experienced all over the world. So if there are urgent care clinics that can be accessed easily by patients, then it would be of great help.
