Breast cancer risk among women with psychiatric admission with affective or neurotic disorders: a nationwide cohort study in Denmark

Abstract

There is a considerable interest in the possible relationship between psychosocial factors and the onset of breast cancer. This cohort study was based upon two nationwide and population-based central registers: The Danish Psychiatric Central Register, which contains all cases of psychiatric admissions, and The Danish Cancer Registry, which contains all cases of cancer. The register-linkage was accomplished by using a personal identification number. The study population comprised all women admitted to psychiatric departments or psychiatric hospitals in Denmark between 1969 and 1993 with an affective or a neurotic disorder. Overall, 66 648 women comprising 199 910 admissions and 775 522 person-years were included. The incidence of breast cancer in the cohort was compared with the national breast cancer incidence rates adjusted for age and calendar time. In all, 1270 women with affective or neurotic disorders developed breast cancer subsequent to the first admission as compared with the 1242 women expected, standardized incidence ratio (SIR) = 1.02 (95% confidence interval 0.97–1.08). None of the hypothetical risk factors: type of diagnosis, age or calendar period at cohort entry, age at breast cancer, alcohol abuse, alcohol/drug abuse without further specification, total number of admissions, total length of admissions, or time from first admission showed a statistically significant effect on the relative risk of breast cancer. We found no support for the hypothesis that women admitted to a psychiatric department with an affective or a neurotic disorder subsequently have an increased risk of breast cancer. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Self-reported psychological stress and the risk of breast cancer: A case-control study

“…Little is known about the role that depression plays in the etiology of breast cancer. Of a few studies concerning this relation, three found significantly increased risk (Gallo et al 2000;Jacobs and Bovasso 2000;Peled et al 2008), one study insignificantly increased risk (Hahn and Petitti 1988) (similarly to our observation), whereas the study by Hjerl et al (1999) noted no association.…”

Depression as a risk factor for breast cancer: investigating methodological limitations in the literature

“…Finally, it needs to be considered that all three studies finding negative associations between depression and breast cancer incidence [33,39,43] and six studies finding positive associations [40-42, 44, 47, 48] included fewer than 220 individuals that developed breast cancer, while all studies finding positive associations had numbers of individuals developing breast cancer ranging from 229 to 2,892 cases of breast cancer [38,45,46,[49][50][51]. Thus, the small number of breast cancer cases could be another explanation for the negative associations between depression and breast cancer incidence.…”

Use of Antidepressant Medications and the Possible Association with Breast Cancer Risk

“…Gallo et al [70]and Jacobs and Bovasso [71]reported an association between depression and breast cancer. A population-based cohort study of nearly 67,000 women reported no association between a psychiatric admission and breast cancer risk [72]. In addition, two recent prospective cohort studies involving over 12,000 Finnish women reported no association between measures of anxiety/depression and risk of breast cancer [73, 74].…”