P-13 Mental Illness and Premature Death.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using death records from the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, covering the period 2017– 2021. All cases involving individuals older than 16 years were reviewed, yielding 2,062 eligible charts. Key variables included age, history of mental illness (as per DSM-V criteria), cause of death (ICD-10 classification), and manner of death. Premature death was defined as death occurring at or before age 69. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-square test, with significance set at p < 0.05.

Results: Of the total sample, 318 individuals (15%) had a history of mental illness, while 1,744 (85%) did not. Among those with mental illness, 89.3% (284/318) died prematurely, compared to 99.7% (1,739/1,744) in those without mental illness — a statistically significant difference (p = 0.0001). The most common cause of premature death among individuals with mental illness was injury, poisoning, and other external causes. Bipolar disorder and mixed affective disorders had the highest proportions of premature death within the mental illness subgroup. Notably, the mean age at death for those with mental illness was 46 years, compared to 37 years for those without, further reinforcing the unexpected finding of later death among the mentally ill group.

Conclusion: Contrary to expectations, this study found a statistically significant association between mental illness and lower rates of premature death. The reasons for this unexpected result warrant further investigation and may reflect sampling differences, classification methods, or other confounding variables. Nonetheless, external causes remain the leading cause of premature death among individuals with mental illness, with bipolar and mixed disorders being disproportionately represented.