Can you die of depression or sadness? Surprising

Die of sadness is a popular expression, although is it possible? I've been doing research on it and I'll tell you what I've found. The power of the mind over the perception of the world or even our health is greater than we really think.

To begin, a couple of questions that arise on this subject are: Why do cancer patients and other diseases who want to live manage to overcome them more often? Why does one of the partners sometimes die shortly after the other has died??

Article index

• 1 Be careful what you are diagnosed with and your attitude
• 2 Some data
  • 2.1 Tobacco-depression relationship
• 3 incapacitating death 

Be careful what you are diagnosed with and your attitude

It is clear that your attitude influences your health. Research has shown that the attitudes you have towards life cause a series of neuroendocrinological reactions that will positively or negatively influence your body.

The movie Dallas Buyers Club tells the story of a drug addict who is diagnosed with AIDS and given one month to live. However, he disagrees with the doctors and struggles to survive, managing to survive 20 more years. How long does your attitude influence? You are right.

In fact, according to neuroendocrinologist Michael Besser, people have been observed who were misdiagnosed with cancer and died soon after. Is this related to the urban myths of supposed seers who guessed a near death?

Some wives or husbands who lose their partners, get carried away by depression, and later die too.

Some data

It is a bit difficult to affirm or deny in a forceful way if you can die of sadness or depression. If I had to choose, I would say yes and now I will argue.

In today's society, treatments and evaluations focus on “physical illnesses” because they are easier to detect, although if we consider the following data, it is clear that mental illnesses are equally important, particularly sadness:

• Among the nearly 500 million cases of mental disorders in the world today, the majority are made up of people with mood disorders, or depression.
• More than 800,000 people die each year by suicide, and this is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-29, according to the World Health Organization (it is the second leading cause of death).
• In China 350,000 people kill themselves each year. It is the leading cause of death in young people.
• There is evidence that for every adult who committed suicide, possibly more than 20 others attempted suicide.
• According to data published by the INE, in Spain there were 3,539 suicide cases (7.5 per 100,000 inhabitants) during 2012, the highest number recorded since 2005.
• In 2012, suicides in Mexico reached 5,190: 4201 men and 989 women.
• In Argentina there were 3,342 suicides in 2012.

People with serious mental illnesses, such as major depression (extreme sadness) are 3 to 4 times more likely to die prematurely. 

These data do not show that sadness itself causes death, but it can lead to it, since there are various conditions that can occur alongside depression: Heart disease, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, malnutrition, Parkinson's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety disorder, suicide and suicidal ideation, and complications in cancer treatment, among others.

I think that in order to reinforce an opinion - more if it is going to be public - it is important to provide data. So here you have more:

• The association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and depression is well established and is suggested to be bidirectional. People with depression have twice the risk of developing heart disease as well as those without depression.
• In a recent study in New Zealand, 80% of depressions preceded heart disease (in depression with heart disease as well).
• According to a study published in the 'Journal of the American Heart Association', women 55 and younger are twice as likely to have a heart attack, die or require procedures to open the arteries if they are moderately or severely depressed.
• The prevalence of depression in the general population ranges from 5 to 10%; in patients with diabetes it is higher: 30 to 65%. Based on previous research, depression is believed to increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Depression can also have a significant effect on glycemic control, diabetes self-management, and quality of life. People with depression and diabetes have also been reported to be more likely to die at an early age.
• People with depression are more likely to smoke and find it harder to quit.
• Depressed smokers have higher levels of nicotine dependence than non-depressed smokers.

Tobacco-depression relationship

Regarding the tobacco-depression relationship (tobacco kills almost 6 million people each year), it is believed that people with depression are more vulnerable to falling into the habit of smoking due to low self-esteem and low self-efficacy (Hughes, 1988 ).

However, there have been other hypotheses: smokers with a depressive history use cigarettes to self-medicate an underlying depression (eg, Carmody, 1989; Lerman et al., 1996); Genetic or environmental factors can predispose people to depression and smoking (Breslau, Kilbey, and Andreski, 1993; Breslau, Peterson, Schultz, Chilcota, and Andreski, 1998; Kendler et al., 1993). None of these or other hypotheses have been extensively studied..

Incapacitating death 

I have already made it clear to you why I believe that depression or extreme sadness can cause death, but it can also cause other types of death; the incapacitant.

On the other hand, depression is already the main cause of disability in the world, with 121 million people suffering from it, and it is estimated that by 2020 it will be the second cause of sick leave in developed countries. 

With major depression, it is difficult to relate, work or something as simple - for healthy people - as getting out of bed.

And you do you think? Do you think sadness can lead to demise?