A new study published in Nature Mental Health looked at the association between mental health conditions and an increased risk of self-harm, assault and unintentional injuries.
“Our study focuses on the link between mental heath conditions and physical injuries,” study author Leah S. Richmond-Rakerd told us. « We aimed to determine if individuals with mental-health conditions experience increased risk for a broad range of injuries, including unintentional injuries as well as injuries from self-harm and victimization.”
Mental health conditions are a well-established risk factor for self-harm, and some prior research has also shown that people with mental health problems have increased risk for injuries from assault.
“We thus anticipated that we would observe associations of mental health conditions with these injury outcomes,” Richmond-Rakerd told us. “Unintentional injuries have been less well-studied as an outcome of mental health conditions, and most research on this topic has focused on younger populations. Our findings with regard to unintentional injuries were the most novel aspect of our report.”
Research has shown that people with mental health conditions are more likely to accumulate chronic physical diseases. However, other types of physical health problems, including injuries, have received comparatively limited attention.
“Physical injuries are a major contributor to poor heath and premature death, and unintentional injuries make up the majority of injuries experienced in the population,” Richmond-Rakerd told us. “We wanted to add to the knowledge base on the physical health impacts of mental health conditions by conducting a comprehensive study of injury risk. »
The researchers used nationwide administrative data for nearly five million individuals from Norway and New Zealand. They measured mental health conditions using primary care records and inpatient hospital records. They measured injuries using primary care records, inpatient hospital records, and records of injury insurance claims.
“We followed people across observation periods ranging from 14 to 30 years,” Richmond-Rakerd told us. “We tested whether people with a record of a mental health condition were more likely to subsequently experience an injury than those without a record of a mental health condition. We controlled for pre-existing injuries, to address the potential for reverse causation. We also accounted for people’s socioeconomic backgrounds.”
In both nations, the study found that people with mental health conditions had increased risk of experiencing subsequent injuries. These included unintentional injuries, as well as injuries from self-harm and assault. People with mental health conditions had increased risk for injuries to different body systems and regions, but risk was particularly elevated for brain and head injuries. Associations were evident across different types of mental health conditions, for both men and women, and among both younger and older individuals. Associations were not explained by experiences of prior injury or individuals’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
“We were impressed with the broad range of both mental health conditions and injury types for which we observed associations,” Richmond-Rakerd told us. « We were also impressed with how robust associations were to controls for potential confounds, including pre-existing injuries and socioeconomic background. »
Richmond-Rakerd believes the findings indicate that people with mental health conditions have increased risk for a broad range of injuries and that incorporating injury prevention into mental health treatment could help support the physical health and wellbeing of individuals with mental health problems.