The life expectancy of the mentally ill is dramatically low. However, this is not a new phenomenon. "It is impossible to look at these tables, collected at different times and by different observers, without perceiving that, even under the most favourable conditions, the mortality among the insane is more than double and nearly three times as great as that which exists in an adult population at or about the same age" (Taylor AF Lond Med Gaz 1847;39:661). No change then with the position today. There has been surprisingly little modern research on this surely important public health issue, and what there is has thrown little light on the cause(s). One thing for sure, many of the modern theories would not apply to these old cases. There must be masses of old but valuable data around, which should help pinpoint the relevant invariant factors over two centuries.
You can please refer to the links below to obtain certain interesting informations:-
1. http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/info_sheet.pdf
2. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-mental-illness-death-study-20150211-story.html
3. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-05-03-mental-illness_N.htm
4. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mentally-ill-die-earlier-due-to-nhs-failures-9324858.html
"http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mentally-ill-die-earlier-due-to-nhs-failures-9324858.html"
NHS failures, drugs, obesity, etc, do not address the excess mortality 200y ago, which is likely to have a common cause with early deaths today.
There is a concept in title of self care. A mentally ill patient can not do this properly and will be weaken by infectious diseases and die early.
"A mentally ill patient can not do this properly and will be weaken by infectious diseases and die early."
I don't think there is any evidence from now or in the past that the excess mortality is due to infectious disease in adulthood. However, I suspect that the cause may be infectious disease in infancy, which leads to lifelong impairment of body defenses against disease, leaving the person susceptible to a wide range of future disease, mental and physical.
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