Anxiety and Depression Can Shorten Your Lifespan By 20 Years, Researchers Warn

Struggling with your mental health is a big enough burden, even when it has no impact on your physical wellbeing. But experts say there’s a surprising way that conditions like anxiety and depression can take a toll not only on our minds, but also on our bodies.

A growing wealth of research suggests that common mental health disorders—including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—can actually shorten a person’s lifespan by 10 to 20 years. A major driver of this alarming gap is the much higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people living with mental health conditions.

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A Sept. 2025 study, published in The Lancet Regional Health—Europe, highlights how deeply intertwined mental and cardiovascular health can be. It also explains why addressing both together is essential for closing the life-expectancy gap.

People with mental health disorders face a 50 percent to two-times higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular death compared to those without these conditions, the study says. And, the relationship appears to go both ways: Developing heart disease can also trigger new mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. (It is estimated that more than 40 percent of people with cardiovascular disease also have a mental health condition.)

Perhaps even more shockingly, the researchers found that those living with depression are 72 percent more likely to develop heart disease, while those with anxiety disorders saw a 41 percent higher risk of cardiovascular mortality. Those with schizophrenia were at greatest risk, nearly doubling their odds with a shocking 95 percent increase.

This “comorbidity” happens for many reasons. Acutely stressful life events and chronic stress—which can contribute to the onset of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and schizophrenia—are also powerful risk factors for heart disease. Biological pathways such as inflammation and hormonal stress responses may worsen both conditions, as can depression-linked behaviors like smoking, inactivity, and poor sleep.

Though these risk factors are well known to medical professionals, people with mental health disorders often receive inferior cardiovascular care. “Despite having more interactions with the healthcare system, they undergo fewer physical checkups and screenings,” the study states, noting that they are also less likely to receive prompt diagnosis and treatment.

These gaps stem from social and structural barriers, including stigma and socioeconomic disadvantage. Compounding the problem, people with mental health disorders are frequently excluded from medical research, making it harder to design effective prevention and treatment strategies.

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The study authors stress that reducing these health disparities requires integrated, whole-person care, noting that a “large proportion of untreated mental health disorders in the population is likely a combination of system, provider, and patient factors (such as limited access to care, stigma, poor health literacy, lack of social support).”

They further add that these barriers call for “better strategies towards outreach, screening, treatment referral and access to care for mental health problems in primary care and cardiology settings.” These might include:

• Routine mental-health screening in heart-care settings
• Better cardiovascular screening and prevention in mental-health care settings
• Interventions that address stress, trauma, and lifestyle risk factors
• Policies targeting social determinants of health, such as poverty and access to quality care
• Mind-body practices that improve both cardiovascular and mental health risk factors

The findings underscore an important message: that mental health is physical health. Left unaddressed, mental health disorders can dramatically shorten life—often by one to two decades—largely due to preventable cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, strengthening mental-health support, improving heart-disease care, and integrating the two are essential steps toward closing this life-threatening gap.