Abstract
Background: research focusing on incidence of cancer amongst bipolar affective disorder (BAD) is sparse. Aim: to ex-amine the incidence of cancer in a cohort of BAD inpatients. Methods: the study sample was comprised of BAD patients who had been admitted to a tertiary care mental health center during the period: 1990 to 2006. The data for the sample was cross-referenced with the National Cancer Registry. Analyses of Standardized Incidence Rates (SIR) for all organ systems malignancies were performed. Results: of 1,638 BAD patients included in the present study, 72 (0.04%) were diagnosed as suffering from co-morbid malignancy. This reflects a significantly reduced risk; SIR of 0.27 (95% CI 0.21－0.34). Reduced risk of cancer held true for both males and females (0.20 and 0.34, respectively). Nineteen women developed breast cancer; SIR = 0.42 (95% CI 0.25－0.66). Conclusions: the present study demonstrates reduced rates of cancer amongst patients suffering from BAD - with special reduction in breast cancer.
Highlights
The unique epidemiological characteristics of mentally ill patients suffering from comorbid malignancies might shed light on the explicit etiology of cancer and contribute to prevention
Seventy-two bipolar affective disorder (BAD) patients were diagnosed as suffering from cancer as reflected by the National Cancer Registry
The present study suggests that BAD patients may have a reduced rate of cancer
Summary
The unique epidemiological characteristics of mentally ill patients suffering from comorbid malignancies might shed light on the explicit etiology of cancer and contribute to prevention. Rates and incidence of malignancy are different amongst patients suffering from severe mental disorders compared to general population rates [1]. These observations have mostly been ascribed to patients suffering from serious mental illness—notably schizophrenia and their first degree relatives [2,3]. A large population based study of BAD patients compared cancer risks of 6 common cancers (breast, colon, rectal, gastroesophageal, prostate, and respiratory) to patients with schizophrenia who have similar lifestyle characteristics but who are likely to differ with respect to use of medication and any inherent physical correlates of the disease [5]. Despite several shared factors—biological, medication [6], episodes of hospitalizations and unhealthy behavior—there is limited recent research on the association for bipolar disorder [7,8]
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