Temporal order of cancers and mental disorders in an adult population
David Cawthorpe,
Marc Kerba,
Aru Narendran,
Harleen Ghuttora,
Gabrielle Chartier,
Norman Sartorius
Affiliations
David Cawthorpe
Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Psychiatry & Community Health Sciences, Institute for Child and Maternal Health, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Marc Kerba
Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Aru Narendran
Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators Consortium (POETIC) Laboratory, Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Harleen Ghuttora
Master of Biomedical Technology, University of Calgary, and Program Coordinator – Health, Genome Alberta, Canada
Gabrielle Chartier
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Norman Sartorius
Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, Adjunct Professor at the University of St Louis, New York, USA, and President Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes, Geneva, Switzerland.
BackgroundPopulation-based examination of comorbidity is an emerging field of study.AimsThe purpose of the present population level study is to expand our understanding of how cancer and mental illness are temporally associated.MethodA sample of 83 648 056 physician billing records for 664 838 (56% female) unique individuals over the age of 18 was stratified on ages 19–49 years and 50+ years, with temporal order of mental disorder and cancer forming the basis of comparison.ResultsMental disorders preceded cancers for both genders within each age strata. The full range of cancers and mental disorders preceding or following each pivot ICD class are described in terms of frequency of diagnosis and duration in days, with specific examples illustrated.ConclusionsThe temporal comorbidity between specific cancers and mental disorders may be useful in screening or clinical planning and may represent indicators of disease mechanism that warrant further screening or investigation.Declaration of interestNone.
