Psychiatric admission in female survivors of childhood and young adult cancer: a whole population retrospective study.

BACKGROUND

The last 40 years have seen a substantial improvement in overall survival from cancer in children and young people. There is limited information on psychiatric wellbeing in female survivors of cancer at a young age.

OBJECTIVE

In this 40-year population-based linkage study, we set out to determine the incidence of first psychiatric admission compared with a non-exposed age-matched control.

METHODS

Scottish cancer registry records from 1981 to 2012 were linked to psychiatric admissions, maternity and death records from January 1981 to September 2018 using the unique personal Community Health Index number allocated to each person in Scotland. For each exposed subject, three age and deprivation matched controls from the population were selected. The primary exposed group was all females with a cancer diagnosis at age <25 years and no previous pregnancy and no psychiatric admission before cancer diagnosis. The main outcome measure is admission to a psychiatric hospital with a mental health diagnosis.

FINDINGS: Female cancer survivors had a significantly lower cumulative incidence of first psychiatric admissions than matched controls over the 38 years of follow-up for the cohort (p<0.05). The relative risk of a first psychiatric admission at 25 years from cancer diagnosis was 0.72 (0.56-0.89).

CONCLUSION

Overall, we have shown that young cancer survivors are less likely than age-matched controls to have a psychiatric admission after cancer diagnosis. In particular, psychiatric admissions for mood disorders, neuroses, personality disorders and substance use are significantly less likely in the cancer survivors.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The experience of cancer treatment and survival in young females may reduce the risk of psychiatric admission in later life.