The Incidence of Cancer Among In-Patients with Affective Disorders

Abstract

Mortality rates in psychiatric patients have been reported as higher than those of the general population in Scandinavia (Odegaard, 1952), the United States (Gorwitz et al., 1966; Babigian and Odoroff, 1968), and Scotland (Innes and Millar, 1970). These findings may be related both to a greater prevalence of physical disease amongst psychiatric patients (Kay and Roth, 1955; Culpan et al., 1960; Shepherd et al., 1964; Kay and Bergman, 1966; Eastwood and Trevelyan, 1972) and to a greater frequency of suicide (Stenstedt, 1952; Stenstedt, 1959; Pokorny, 1964).