Open AccessPsychiatric Disorder as a Risk Factor for Cancer
Author(s) -
Elise Whitley,
G. David Batty,
Paul A. Mulheran,
Catharine R. Gale,
David Osborn,
Per Tynelius,
Finn Rasmussen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.901
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1531-5487
pISSN - 1044-3983
DOI - 10.1097/ede.0b013e3182547094
Subject(s) - psychiatry , medicine , incidence (geometry) , hazard ratio , cancer , cohort , confidence interval , population , cohort study , causality (physics) , risk factor , physics , environmental health , quantum mechanics , optics
Reported associations between psychiatric disorders and cancer incidence are inconsistent, with cancer rates in psychiatric patients that are variously higher than, similar to, or lower than the general population. Understanding these associations is complicated by difficulties in establishing the timing of onset of psychiatric disorders and cancer, and by the possibility of reverse causality. Some studies have dealt with this problem by excluding patients with cancers predating their psychiatric illness; others have not considered the issue.