When Cancer Patients Commit Suicide

Cancer patients appear at higher risk of accidental death and suicide. The reasons for this and how suicide and accidental death relate remain unclear. A recent research study published in Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention examined risk factors for such deaths among cancer patients.  Using the SEER registries (1973–2007), an  analysis was conducted on 4,449,957 cancer patients comparing all causes of death (COD) to accidental and suicidal deaths through competing hazards, relative risk and proportional hazards models. SEER did not provide psychological assessments; the analysis was confined to their standard epidemiological and clinicopathological parameters. Results showed that 2,557,385 overall deaths yielded 16,879 (0.66%) accidents and 6,589 (0.26%) suicides. Mortality reached its highest incidence immediately after diagnosis and obeyed Pareto type II distributions. The major identifiable risk factor for suicide was male gender; for accidental death, First Nations ethnicity; and all COD, metastases. Minor factors for suicide included metastases, advanced age, and respiratory as well as head and neck tumors, whereas for accidental death they were male gender, metastases, advanced age, and brain tumors.  Differences were observed in the risk patterns of suicide and accidental death, suggesting distinct etiologies. A high incidence of suicides and accidental deaths following diagnosis (attributed by some to stress from the diagnosis of cancer) correlated here with overall mortality and indicators of physical morbidity. Cancer patients with the above identifiable risk factors warrant supportive attention.

For the abstract.

Comments

[Best Psychologists NYC]

Thanks for sharing! It's really upsetting news that, Patients were almost 13 times more likely to commit suicide in the first week after learning they had cancer than they were prior to the diagnosis.