Cancer Disparities and Mental Illness

Individuals with Anxiety Disorders May Be At Higher Risk for Cancer Generalized anxiety is one of the most common anxiety disorders among the general population.  Studies have shown that psychological factors like stress and anxiety can lead to impaired immune and endocrine function.  Individuals with anxiety disorders are almost 2 times more likely to develop lung cancer and prostate cancer than the general population. >> Read more
	Disparities in Survival Among Patients with Mental Illness and Oral Cancer Oral cancer is one of the ten most common cancers in the world.  Patients with oral cancer and mental illness demonstrate a poor prognosis and are 1.58 times more likely to experience mortality compared to an oral cancer patient without mental illness according to one study.  >> Read more
	Increased Tobacco-Related Mortality Among Individuals Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Depression In a study of tobacco related conditions and mortality rates amongst hospitalized psychiatric patients, tobacco linked diseases were approximately 53% of total deaths of patients with schizophrenia, 48% for those with bipolar, and 50% for patients with depression.  Tobacco use among people with schizophrenia ranges from 45-88%, 40-60% among those with major depression, and 33-70% among those with bipolar disorder. >> Read more  from National Behavioral Health Network for Tobacco and Cancer Control