Comparing suicide and vascular mortality associated with mental illness

Abstract

People with severe mental illness experience increased mortality from unnatural causes, most notably suicide, and natural causes, particularly vascular disease. In the last 5 years there has been an increase in attention in suicide prevention for people with mental illness alongside a growing recognition of the importance to meet their physical health-care needs. Although mental illness is strongly associated with suicide, the single biggest contributor to the dramatic gap in life expectancy associated with severe mental illness is not suicide but vascular disease.