title: Early mortality and years of potential life lost among Veterans Affairs patients with depression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Substantial literature documents excess and early mortality among individuals with serious mental illness, but there are relatively few data about mortality and depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  During fiscal year 2007, data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Death Index were used to calculate mean age of death and years of potential life lost (YPLL) associated with 13 causes of death among veterans with (N=701,659) or without (N=4,245,193) depression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with nondepressed patients, depressed patients died younger (71.1 versus 75.9) and had more YPLL (13.4 versus 10.2) as a result of both natural and unnatural causes. Depending on the cause of death, depressed patients died between 2.5 and 8.7 years earlier and had 1.5 to 6.1 YPLL compared with nondepressed patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings have important implications for clinical practice, given that improved quality of care may be needed to reduce early mortality among depressed VA patients.
authors.affiliation: National Serious Mental Illness TreatmentResearch and Evaluation Center and the Health Services Research and Development Center for Clinical Management Research, US Department of Veterans Affairs, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Bldg 14, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. kzivin@umich.edu
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zivin
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ilgen
authors.forename: Paul Nelson
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.forename: Deborah E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valenstein
authors.forename: Erin M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Khairul
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Helen C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kales
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*