Cancer patients, not necessarily terminally ill commit suicide more often than the general population

t is not uncommon for a person in whom cancer was diagnosed to experience suicidalthoughts, and this fact is reflected by a two times higher in these patients than in the general population suicide rate almost indicate Three studies published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The cancer .... suicidal

If these data are well known among terminally ill patients, these three studies refer to a situation in terms of suicidal thoughts and acting out, "probably as difficult for patients who survive cancer or living with the disease, "according to the author of an editorial accompanying the publication.

One of these studies was to compare, retrospectively, the suicide rate associated with a large cohort of U.S. patients (over 3 million people), incorporated in 1973 and 2002, and that of the general population. Such research has been done in Europe, but this work has specifically affected the population of the United States. The researchers then identified the risk factors associated with suicide.

According to the analysis, the suicide rate in the cohort of patients reached 31.4 suicides per 100,000 people per year, against 16.7 in the rest of the population. The near doubling of the incidence of suicide among American cancer patients, which can also result in a 88% increase in the risk of suicide compared to the general population is generally more important than the European figures.

Thus, a Danish study was reported between 1971 and 1999, an increased risk of suicide, compared to the rest of the population, 70% of men diagnosed with cancer and 40% in women. Norway between 1960 and 1999, these figures were 55% and 35% and in Sweden between 1985 and 1994, they reached 50% and 130%.

U.S. researchers have found a list of factors that increase the risk of an attempt on his life, including being a man, White, and the age of diagnosis. They also found a link between the location of the cancer and the suicide rate: a person suffering from lung cancer had a higher risk, then came cancers of the aerodigestive tract and stomach. These locations "sensitive" were different from one country to another on the European continent.

Identify risk factors for action

The second study, also American, trying to retrospectively identify other risk factors for suicide. The researchers studied a cohort of 128 people with cancer and the cause of death was suicide identified, and were matched to a group of cancer 10 times higher in many patients with the same characteristics in terms of age, gender and ethnicity.

According to the results, people who ended their lives had more emotional or anxiety disorders, consumed more antidepressants and opioid painkillers than other patients yet.

This information, if confirmed, may be valuable tools for caregivers, which can detect the most vulnerable people before it is too late. Notably, the majority of patients who died by suicide had visited a doctor in the month before their act, and 25% in the week.

The third study, conducted in the UK, used a different approach this time, the authors sought to characterize patients prospectively, and not returning to the recorded data as in the other two works. They were based on a cohort of 2924 consecutive patients attending a center to fight against the cancer of Edinburgh, and submitted a written questionnaire on their health.

In particular, they analyzed the responses to Question 9, which was the result of experience or not feel it would be easier "to die or [s] he hurt one way or another "in the two weeks preceding the submission of the questionnaire. Patients were also subjected to assessments of anxiety, depression and pain.

Among the respondents, 7.8% responded positively to the question No. 9. Statistical analysis also highlighted a correlation between these responses, and emotional pain. The combination of these two factors was more strongly related to these "suicidal" thoughts.

The author of the editorial, Timothy E. Quill, Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Forensic Sciences Human University of Rochester (New York) indicates that these studies "probably reflect a small part of a much broader and more complex phenomenon."