Psychic vulnerability and the associated risk for cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND Psychic vulnerability has been associated with a number of physical symptoms and diseases. This study was designed to estimate the incidence of cancer in a random sample of persons in the general Danish population in relation to a personality characteristic measured by the Test of Psychic Vulnerability. METHODS The authors examined the cancer incidence in a cohort of 5136 randomly sampled persons age > 25 years living in Copenhagen County, Denmark. The responses to questionnaires and the results of examinations, including the Test of Psychic Vulnerability, were collected during 1982–1984 and during 1991–1992. The observed numbers of cancers were compared with the numbers that would have been expected if the cohort members had experienced the same risk of cancer as the population of Copenhagen County. Regression analyses were performed with the Cox proportional hazards model to adjust for well‐known risk factors for cancer. RESULTS A total of 403 cancers were observed, and 412.02 were expected, yielding a standardized incidence ratio of 0.98 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.88–1.19). The authors did not observe a significant increase in the risk of site specific cancers. The risk for cancer was not influenced by the type of vulnerability in a multivariate analysis (hazards ratio, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.85–1.57). CONCLUSIONS The authors found no increased risk for cancer among psychically vulnerable persons compared with nonvulnerable persons; however, the results indicate that behavior and certain life‐style factors may be determined by personality, which, in turn, may determine the risk for cancer. Cancer 2002;94:3299–306. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10601

Personality traits, health behavior, and risk for cancer

“…9 Thus, the results of well conducted studies in which other measures of personality were used, such as Type A behavior, hostility, and psychic vulnerability, are in line with our current and previous findings that personality traits are not associated with an increased risk for cancer. 9,50 In conclusion, although the causes of some cancers are well established, there remain many cancers for which the risk factors largely are unknown. This leaves room for speculation, including the common belief that the mind may cause certain cancers.…”

“…No significant effect of psychic vulnerability was found on the risk for cancer (HR, 1.16; 95%CI, 0.85-1.57). 50 Type A behavior, which is defined as time urgency, ambitiousness, competitive drive, and aggressiveness, was studied prospectively among 11,272 women who were followed for breast cancer for 20 years. No significant effect of Type A behavior on the risk for breast cancer was observed (HR, 1.15; 95%CI, 0.73-1.82).…”

Mental vulnerability—a risk factor for ischemic heart disease

“…A national Danish study demonstrated that mentally vulnerable persons, compared with nonvulnerable individuals, report more diseases and symptoms, use health services more often, and have a less healthy lifestyle [13]. In other studies, mental vulnerability has been associated with upper dyspepsia [14], irritable bowel syndrome [15], peptic ulcer [16], and early mortality [17], but not with cancer [18]. Furthermore, mental vulnerability predicted persistent pain after lumbar spine surgery [19] and cholecystectomy [20,21], independently of known risk factors.…”

Vital exhaustion and risk for cancer

“…In the personalityhealth behavior model, personality or psychological factors are assumed to predispose to life style factors that influence cancer risk. 28 The categorization into etiologic groups on the basis of both life style and immunologic and hormonal factors applied in the current analyses fits the assumed mechanisms in both theories.…”