Mortality, survival, and causes of death in mental disorders: comprehensive prospective analyses of the UK Biobank cohort

Background The UK Biobank is a large middle-aged cohort recruited in 2006-2010. We used data from its participants to analyze mortality, survival, and causes of death associated with mental disorders. Methods Our exposures were mental disorders identified using (1) symptom-based outcomes derived from an online Mental Health Questionnaire (n = 157 329), including lifetime/current depression, lifetime/current generalized anxiety disorder, lifetime/recent psychotic experience, lifetime bipolar disorder, current alcohol use disorder, and current posttraumatic stress disorder and (2) hospital data linkage of diagnoses within the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) (n = 502 422), including (A) selected diagnoses or groups of diagnoses corresponding to symptom-based outcomes and (B) all psychiatric diagnoses, grouped by ICD-10 section. For all exposures, we estimated age-adjusted mortality rates and hazard ratios, as well as proportions of deaths by cause. Results We found significantly increased mortality risk associated with all mental disorders identified by symptom-based outcomes, except for lifetime generalized anxiety disorder (with hazard ratios in the range of 1.08-3.0). We also found significantly increased mortality risk associated with all conditions identified by hospital data linkage, including selected ICD-10 diagnoses or groups of diagnoses (2.15-7.87) and ICD-10 diagnoses grouped by section (2.02-5.44). Causes of death associated with mental disorders were heterogeneous and mostly natural. Conclusions In a middle-aged cohort, we found a higher mortality risk associated with most mental disorders identified by symptom-based outcomes and with all disorders or groups of disorders identified by hospital data linkage of ICD-10 diagnoses. The majority of deaths associated with mental disorders were natural.