Suicide explains only a small proportion of the increase in mortality among the depressed.
Links Mortality L et's throw away the term, depression, and call it the perfect mental storm, instead. This is the destructive nature of the storm with which we are most familiar, one that can lead to suicide, up to fifteen percent for those who see no other way out. Thirty thousand Americans die each year by their own hand, according to official figures, but the true number is probably many times higher in the form of so-called accidents and deliberately bad lifestyle choices. The other killer aspects of the perfect mental storm are just as real, but not readily apparent. According to a Montreal Heart Institute study , depressed patients with heart attacks are four times more likely to die within six months as their non-depressed counterparts.