Why are psychiatric patients more likely to die of cancer? An epidemiological study of cancer incidence & staging (2010-2014)
Abstract
Psychiatric patients are no more likely to develop many cancers than the general population but more likely to die of them. If lifestyle (e.g. smoking) was the sole explanation, the number of new cases would reflect the increased death rate, but it doesn't. Using administrative data, this study investigates two other possible explanations: 1) whether psychiatric patients are diagnosed at a more advanced cancer stage, or 2) whether they access specialist services less frequently than others.
