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A life-expectancy gap exists between people with mental illnesses and the general population. In this population-based study, investigators assessed trends in life expectancy and major causes of death among psychiatric patients compared with the general population in Western Australia.
Between 1985 and 2005, life expectancy in the general population increased from 73.1 to 79.1 years in men and from 79.3 to 83.8 years in women; among psychiatric patients, life expectancy increased from 59.6 to 63.2 years in men and from 68.9 to 71.8 years in women. Despite these increases in life expectancy among people with psychiatric illnesses, the life-expectancy gap between them and the general population also widened — from 13.5 to 15.9 years in men and…