Here’s an article from Nurse.com that talks about a study showing a correlation between mental health and physical health. As a psychiatric nurse, I have always know that my patients have a higher risk of certain physical diseases. It’s amazing to me that it has taken so long for others to notice and try to figure it out.
Asthama, diabetes, hypertension, and even strokes are common Axis III diagnoses for inpatient mental health patients of all ages. There has to be a reason for this correlation. Maybe now there will be more studies to try to figure out the connections. I can only hope so.
Please read this excerpt of the article and click over to Nurse.com to read the rest. It’s worth your time and effort to do so. While there, check out some of the other articles they have about current nursing issues.
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Adults who had a mental illness in the past year have higher rates of certain physical illnesses than those not
experiencing mental illness, according to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration.
For example, 21.9% of adults in a SAMHSA national survey who experienced any mental illness (based on
diagnostic criteria specified in DSM-iv) in the past year had hypertension. Meanwhile, 18.3% of those without any
mental illness had hypertension.
And 15.7% of adults who had any mental illness in the past year also had asthma, while 10.6% of those without
mental illness had the condition.
Adults who had a serious mental illness (a mental illness causing serious functional impairment that
substantially interferes with one or more major life activities) in the past year also showed higher rates of
hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart disease and stroke than did people who did not experience serious mental
illnesses.
Adults experiencing major depressive episodes (periods of depression lasting two weeks or more including
significant problems with every-day aspects of life such as sleep, eating, feelings of self-worth, etc.) had higher
rates of the following physical illnesses than those without major depressive episodes in the past year:
hypertension (24.1% vs. 19.8%), asthma (17% vs. 11.4%), diabetes (8.9% vs. 7.1%), heart disease (6.5% vs.
4.6%) and stroke (2.5% vs. 1.1%).
The report also shows significant differences in ED use and hospitalization rates in the past year between adults
with mental illness in the past year and those without. For example, 47.6% of adults with serious mental illness
in the past year used EDs, as opposed to 30.5% of those without past-year serious mental illness. Adults with
past-year serious mental illness were more likely to have been hospitalized than those without (20.4% versus
11.6% respectively).
“Behavioral health is essential to health. This is a key SAMHSA message…[read more]
Nursing Notes 