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Tag: mental health study

  • Mental Illness Isn’t Associated With Gun Violence, Study Confirms

    Mental Illness Isn’t Associated With Gun Violence, Study Confirms

    Researchers say the findings should have implications for public policy as the nation struggles to respond to an epidemic of gun violence. 

    Access to guns, not history of mental illness, is the biggest predictor of whether a person will threaten someone else or commit violent acts with a firearm, a recent study has confirmed. 

    The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, looked at the behavior of 663 young adults over a period of a few years. Researchers asked participants about their mental health history and symptoms of mental illness.

    They also asked about participants’ access to firearms, whether they carried a gun outside their home (other than for hunting), and if they had ever threatened anyone with a gun. 

    Public Perception Is Wrong

    “Despite the prevailing public and media perception of mental health being associated with gun violence, there is generally a lack of research to support this. We conducted this study to test the link and to provide scientific evidence,” Yu Lu, lead study author and an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, told PsyPost. 

    Researchers wrote that the findings should have implications for public policy as the nation struggles to respond to an epidemic of gun violence. 

    “We found that the majority of mental health symptoms we examined, including anxiety, depression, stress, PTSD, and borderline personality disorder, were unrelated to gun violence,” Lu said. “Instead, individuals with gun access were 18 times more likely to have threatened someone with a gun compared to those who did not have gun access, even after controlling for mental health, prior mental health treatment, and demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, race/ethnicity.”

    Lu said that despite discussions about gun control and mental health access, there has been little research that looks at the interplay of gun violence and mental illness. 

    The researcher explained, “There is an overall lack of research on gun violence. We are the first one to look at mental illness and gun access together, we are also the first one to use longitudinal data to look at the relationship overtime.”

    Still, Lu pointed out that more research needs to be done. The study had some limitations. It did not include individuals with schizophrenia, for example. In addition, the study took place in the Houston, Texas area, where gun ownership rates are higher than elsewhere in the country. 

    Lu emphasized what mental health advocates have been saying all along: that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of gun violence than to perpetrate a gun crime. 

    “The main takeaway from the study is that we should not stigmatize people with mental health problems, not assume they are dangerous, because more than likely they are not dangerous and actually are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence,” Lu said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Why Is Life Expectancy Lower For People With Mental Illness?

    Why Is Life Expectancy Lower For People With Mental Illness?

    New research explores why people with mental illness have a lower life expectancy than those without it.

    People with mental illness often die decades sooner than members of the general population, not because of suicide but because of physical illnesses and inequities in access to care. 
        
    “The consequent poor physical health outcomes of people with mental illness have been alluded to as a human rights issue,” researchers for The Lancet Psychiatry wrote in a recent report. “The premature mortality of people with mental illness reflects a large number of health inequalities between people with and without mental illness throughout the life course.”

    It has long been established that people with severe mental illness have life expectancies that are years shorter than people without severe mental illness. However, new research indicates that people with all types of mental illness have decreased life expectancy. 

    “There is now evidence that individuals who have diagnoses across the entire spectrum of mental disorders have a substantially reduced life expectancy compared with the general population,” the authors wrote. More research needs to be done on how milder mental illnesses affect life expectancy, they write. 

    Reduced life expectancy for people with mental illness is a global trend, study authors pointed out. 

    Lifestyle Choices

    There are a number of factors that affect the reduced life expectancy for people with mental illness. Suicide accounts for 17% of deaths among the population. In addition, physical disease, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, occur at higher rates in people with mental illness.

    Compounding that, lifestyle choices like smoking, substance use and low exercise levels can lower the overall health of people with mental illness. Finally, many psychiatric medications have complex and potentially dangerous physical side effects. 

    A multidisciplinary approach to health, incorporating physical and mental health care, could make a difference in improving life expectancy for people with mental illness. 

    “Modifiable lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, diet, and smoking, are increasingly recognized as being fundamental to both physical and mental health,” the report authors wrote. 

    Addressing systematic issues like poverty and access to care is also important for both physical and mental health. Often, a person’s physical and mental health troubles can compound each other.

    “For instance, people with mental illness are more likely to be in poverty and to have cardiometabolic and infectious diseases, and conversely, chronic physical health conditions and social deprivation are key risk factors for mental illness,” the report authors wrote. 

    There Is Hope

    Although the research is grim, The Lancet report ends on a positive note. 

    “Nonetheless, our Commission takes an optimistic approach, and describes how disparities could be reduced through evidence-based prescribing and better integration of physical and mental health care,” the report reads. “Overall, protecting the physical health of people with mental illness should be considered an international priority for reducing the personal, social, and economic burden of mental health conditions.”

    View the original article at thefix.com