Serious Mental Illness Tied to Higher Cancer, Injury Risk: Studies

July 21st, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

FRIDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) — People with serious mental
illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have a 2.6 times
increased risk of developing cancer, a new study contends.

The findings raise questions about whether people with serious mental
illness receive appropriate cancer screenings and preventive care to help
them avoid cancer risk factors such as smoking, the researchers said.

“The increased risk is definitely there, but we’re not entirely sure
why,” study leader Dr. Gail Daumit, an associate professor of medicine and
psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a
Hopkins news release. “Are these people getting screened? Are they being
treated? Something’s going on.”

The researchers analyzed data from more than 3,300 Maryland Medicaid
beneficiaries with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to determine how
many of them were diagnosed with cancer between 1994 and 2004.

Compared to people in the general population, schizophrenia patients
were more than 4.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer, 3.5 times
more likely to develop colorectal cancer, and nearly three times more
likely to develop breast cancer, the researchers found.

Patients with bipolar disorder had similarly increased risk for the
three types of cancer, according to the study published in the July issue
of the journal Psychiatric Services.

People with serious mental illness are more likely to smoke, which
could explain their elevated risk for lung cancer, Daumit said.

She also noted that women with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are
less likely to have children and that childbearing is believed to reduce
breast cancer risk. In addition, some drugs used to treat mental illness
can increase levels of the hormone prolactin, a factor that has been
linked to breast cancer.

The increased risk of colorectal cancer could be due to lifestyle
issues such as smoking, lack of exercise and a diet lacking fruits and
vegetables, Daumit said.

While the study uncovered a link between mental illness and cancer
risk, it did not prove that one causes the other.

In a separate study released last month, Daumit found that people with
serious mental illness were nearly twice as likely to require emergency or
inpatient department treatment for an injury than people in the general
population, and were about 4.5 times more likely to die from their
injuries.

The study was published online in the journal Injury
Prevention.

About 5 percent of Americans have a serious mental illness and these
people are known to have a two to three times increased risk of dying
prematurely, Daumit noted.

More information

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has more about mental illness.