Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:18:13.956Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Depression and cancer: a follow-up study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

F. A. Whitlock  and
M. Siskind
F. A. Whitlock*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
M. Siskind
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor F. A. Whitlock, Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Clinical Sciences Building, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, 4029, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Thirty-nine male and 90 female patients aged 40 and over, who had been given a primary diagnosis of depression, were followed up for 2⅓;13–4 years. During this period 9 male and 9 female patients died. Five male patients and 1 female died from cancer that had not been diagnosed at the time of their psychiatric admissions. The male cancer deaths are significantly higher than expected. The possible relationships of malignant neoplasm to affective disorder are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , November 1979 , pp. 747 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amatruda, T. A. & Upton, J. V. (1974). Hyperadrenocorticism and A. C. T. H-releasing factor. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 230, 168–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, T. L. (1971). Seven cases of frontal tumour with psychiatric presentation. British Journal of Psychiatry 119, 19–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartrop, R. W., Luckhurst, E., Lazarus, L., Kiloh, L. G. & Penny, R. (1977). Depressed lymphocytie function after bereavement. Lancet i, 834–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brain, R. & Henson, R. A. (1958). Neurological syndromes associated with cancer. Lancet ii, 971–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Medical Journal (1970). Editorial: Psychiatric syndromes of cancer, ii, 681.Google Scholar
Burnet, F. M. (1976). Immunology, Ageing and Cancer. W. H. Freeman: San Francisco.Google Scholar
Corsellis, J. A. N., Goldberg, R. J. & Norton, A. R. (1968). ‘Limbic encephalitis’ and its association with carcinoma. Brain 91, 481–496.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, N. J. R., Baldwin, J. A. & Gath, D. (1974). The incidence of cancer among patients with affective disorders. British Journal of psychiatry 124, 518–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fras, I., Linin, E. M. & Pearson, J. S. (1967). Comparison of psychiatric symptoms in cancer of the pancreas with those in some other intra-abdominal neoplasms. American Journal of Psychiatry 123, 1553–1562.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gatewood, J. W., Organ, C. H. & Mead, B. T. (1975). Mental changes associated with hyperparathyroidism. American Journal of Psychiatry 132, 129–132.Google ScholarPubMed
Gordan, G. S. (1974). Hyper- and hypocalcaemia: pathogenesis and treatment. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 230, 181–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granville-Grossman, K. (1971). Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry, pp. 222–227. J. & A. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Guy, R. (1759). An Essay on Scirrous Tumours and Cancer. J. & A. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Hunter, R., Blackwood, W. & Bull, J. (1968). Three cases of frontal meningioma presenting psychiatrically. British Medical Journal iii, 9–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, M. W., Jenkins, C. D. & Rose, R. M. (1976). The relation of psychological stress to onset of medical illness. Annual Review of Medicine 27, 301–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobson, L. & Ottosson, J.-O. (1971). Initial mental disorder in carcinoma of the pancreas and stomach. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica supplement 221, 120–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joynt, R. J. (1974). The brain's uneasy peace with tumours. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 230, 342–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, T. A., Schapira, K. & Roth, M. (1969). The relationship between premature death and affective disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 1277–1282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeShan, L. & Worthington, R. E. (1956 a), Personality as a factor in the pathogenesis of cancer: a review of the literature. British Journal of Medical Psychology 29, 49–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeShan, L. & Worthington, R. E. (1956 b). Some recurrent life history patterns observed in patients with malignant disease. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 124, 460–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munro, A. (1966). Parental deprivation in depressive patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 112, 443–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, T. & Jääskeläinen, J. (1978). Cancer morbidity in depressive persons. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 22, 117–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paget, J. (1863). Lectures on Surgical Pathology (rev, and ed. Turner, W.). Longmans Green: London.Google Scholar
Parker, W. (1865). Cancer: A Study of 397 Cases of Cancer of the Female Breast. G. P. Putman & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Pettingale, K. W., Greer, S. & Tee, E. H. T. (1977). Serum IgA and emotional expression in breast cancer patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 21, 395–399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rickles, N. K. (1945). Functional systems as first evidence of pancreatic disease. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 101, 566–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmale, A. H. & Iker, H. (1971). Hopelessness as a predictor of cervical cancer. Social Science and Medicine 5, 95–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solomon, G. F. (1969). Discussion: In Second Conference on Psychophysiological Aspects of Cancer. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 164, 633–634.Google Scholar
Snow, H. (1893). Cancer and the Cancer Process. J. & A. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Stein, M., Schiavi, R. C. & Camerino, M. (1976). Influence of brain and behaviour on the immune system. Science 191, 435–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Surawicz, F. G., Brightwell, D. R., Weitzel, D. W., & Ekkehard, O. (1976). Cancer, emotions and mental illness: the present state of understanding. American Journal of Psychiatry 133, 1306–1309.Google ScholarPubMed
Varsamis, J., Zuckhowski, T. & Maini, K. K. (1972). Survival rates of death in geriatric psychiatric patients: a six year follow-up. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal 7, 17–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, C. G. & Schuld, D. (1977). Psychosomatic factors in the aetiology of neoplasms. Journal of Consultative and Clinical Psychology 45, 455–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitlock, F. A. (1978). Suicide, cancer and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 132, 269–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaskin, J. C. (1931). Nervous symptoms as earliest manifestations of carcinoma of the pancreas. Journal of the American Medical Association 96, 1164–1168.Google Scholar