In a study of the causation of cancer in chronic depressed elders, Chronically Depressed Mood and Cancer Risk in Older Persons, results show that there is a considerable correlation between chronic depression and the risk of cancer in persons of 65 years and older. Out of the 4825 persons from the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly studied, 146 persons (3% of the total study sample) are chronically depressed (depressed …show more content…
Cédric Lemogne’s correspondences. 14,203 members of the GAZEL cohort in France, were studied throughout from 1994-2009. Self-reported depression cases through the Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale were collected in 1993, 1996, and 1999. During the 15.2 years of study, 1,119 participants were diagnosed with at least one primary case of cancer. Considering the most popular cancer states (breast, colorectal, smoking-related, prostate, lymphoid and hematopoietic tissues), and 4 depression states, one positive and one negative relationship were found; A positive correlation between SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and other-site cancers, and a negative correlation between depressive symptoms and prostate cancer. This provided no compelling evidence for the hypothesis that depression is positively correlated with cancer risk. The strength of this study is the large pool of participants, the long duration of the study (15.2 years), diverse covariates, and the study of different cancer states. Limitations to the study are 136 participants died of cancer without reported diagnosis, which may be due to the short period of time between detected diagnoses and death, or a depressed state and the low intention to report or do screenings (resulting in type 2 error). Secondly, depression is often underreported in hospitals. However, even after taking these …show more content…
However, it induced that depression is linked to unhealthy lifestyles, a factor contributing to certain types of cancer. 89,491 individuals were hospitalized for depression, and studied over 12.5 years. The majority of the patients were diagnosed with a primary case of unipolar depression. 45 percent of patients had a second incident of another psychiatric disorder after the first diagnoses, with 17 percent of the patients diagnosed with alcoholic psychiatric disorders. As a result of the study, 9,922 cases of cancer were diagnosed, yielding a 1.05 SIR. The amount of cancer cases diagnosed was the highest during the first year of hospitalization, neutral during the 1-9 years, and had a significant increase of 7 percent after 9 years on the initial diagnosis. Patients with 2-diagnosis level of reactive depression were reported with an increase of cancer cases in the first year, and later on excess cancer cases found to be mostly Tabaco-related. Brain cancer cases were with the biggest significant increase in cancer cases during the first year of follow-up, with cases in bipolar psychosis patients reaching almost three times in increased numbers. However, no significant increase was shown after the first year of follow-up. About 44 percent of the 106 excess