Background Physical fitness is a crucial variable in people with severe mental illness as these people could be more independent and improve their job opportunities. The present study compared the physical fitness of physically active and inactive people with severe mental illness. Methods Physical fitness was evaluated in sixty-two people with severe mental illness using 11 physical tests th...

BACKGROUND Excess mortality in severe mental illness (defined here as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorders, and bipolar affective disorders) is well described, but little is known about this inequality in ethnic minorities. We aimed to estimate excess mortality for people with severe mental illness for five ethnic groups (white British, black Caribbean, black African, south Asian, and Irish...

Improving the quality of life of individuals with severe mental illness has been the focus of considerable research. With advances in treatments for severe mental illness, particularly in psychiatric rehabilitation, evaluating outcomes has become increasingly important. Given the complex and multidimensional nature of severe mental illness, outcome evaluation of psychiatric rehabilitation is pa...

We come together as an educator (L.M.R.) and undergraduate university student (S.J.H.) to emphasize the importance of first person accounts of mental illness in education and research. Undergraduate and graduate students often lack knowledge about severe mental illness partly because education concerning severe mental illnesses is not a compulsory component of primary or secondary school health...

Patients with severe mental illness have higher than expected prevalence rates of co-morbid general medical conditions, particularly metabolic and cardiovascular disease. They are also at increased risk of contracting HIV. Conversely, these and other medical disorders also increase the risk of developing mental disorders. Mental illness and general medical conditions have mutually adverse effec...