People with Mental Illness Double the Risk of Heart Disease

Mental health conditions of people with mental illness should be monitored from a young age.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — New study finds people with mental illness serious one has risk heart disease up to two times. This makes the condition of the heart health of people with mental illness must be monitored from a young age. Specifically, mental health problems that affect heart health, namely bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder.

“Previous research has shown that people diagnosed with a serious mental illness die 10-20 years earlier than the general population, and that the leading cause of their death is heart disease,” said study lead author Rebecca Rossom. unitedpressinternational, Monday (14/3/2022).

The researcher in behavioral health at the Center for Chronic Care Innovation at the HealthPartners Institute in Minneapolis explained that his study focused on the contribution of cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, body mass index. Then, it also looked at smoking status to compare overall heart disease risk for people with and without serious mental illness.

Research concludes that early detection and treatment of major heart disease risk factors such as obesity, smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure in young adults with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder can reduce the risk of future heart disease. According to the US National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder causes unusual changes in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to perform daily tasks, while schizophrenia can cause hallucinations, delusions, or disorganized speech. Schizoaffective disorder involves mood major, manic or depressive, and schizophrenia.

In this study, researchers assessed the 10-year and 30-year risk of heart disease among nearly 600,000 adults ages 18-75, who visited primary care clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin between January 2016 and September 2018. Nearly 2 percent of adults have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Of these, 70 percent had bipolar disorder, 18 percent had schizoaffective disorder, and 12 percent had schizophrenia.

Among adults with one of these mental illnesses, the estimated 10-year risk of heart disease was nearly 10 percent and the 30-year risk of heart disease was 25 percent, compared with 8 percent and 11 percent, respectively, among those without a mental illness. An increased risk of heart disease is evident even in young adults, ages 18 to 34, with serious mental illness.

People with bipolar disorder had a 10-year higher risk of heart disease than those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, while people with schizoaffective disorder had a 30-year higher risk of heart disease than the other two groups. Smoking and obesity are major factors in the risk of heart disease among adults with serious mental illness. They were three times more likely to be a current smoker (36 percent) and much more likely to be obese (50 percent) than those without a serious mental illness (12 percent and 36 percent, respectively).

The researchers also found that adults with a serious mental illness had double the rate of diabetes compared to people who were mentally healthy, while 15 percent of adults with a serious mental illness had high blood pressure compared to 13 percent of those without a serious mental illness. are you serious. This study was published in Journal of American Heart Association.

Even at a younger age, Rossom says people with serious mental illness have a higher risk of heart disease than their peers, which highlights the importance of addressing cardiovascular risk factors for these people as early as possible.

“We encourage the health care system and physicians to use a 30-year cardiovascular risk estimate for young adults with serious mental illness, as this can be used as early as 18 years of age,” Rossom said.

Currently, Rossom says the 10-year heart disease risk estimate is most commonly used, and it can’t be applied until people are at least 40 years old, which is too late to start treating heart disease risk in people with serious mental illness.

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