Closing mental health gaps through tackling stigma and discrimination

Abstract

Mental health is every doctor’s business. Comorbid mental health conditions exacerbate long-term physical health conditions-8 billion pounds in additional costs to the English NHS every year. Mental health has a significant impact on many areas of physical health care. A fifth of patients with breast cancer are developing depression in the first year after their diagnosis. Forty-two percent of all tobacco use in England is by people with mental illness, but they are less likely to be offered smoking cessation programmes than those without mental illness. Therefore, across medicine, we need to educate and support all doctors to watch out for diagnostic overshadowing where there is evidence that people with mental health problems do not receive either the same level of access, investigation or treatment for physical health complaints as people without them.