Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?

The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors published a study two years ago called "Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness." The report analyzed data from 16 states, and found that, on average, people with severe mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population.

The causes of physical illness and death among psychiatric patients are much the same as those in other groups — cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes — and are treatable.

Read the full story, published in the December 8, 2008 edition of Time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1863220,00.html