Depression in Women with Breast Cancer Lowers Survival

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Depression is associated with a higher risk of mortality in breast cancer patients when compared with women without breast cancer, results of recent study published in Brain Sciences on July 21 show.

A team of researchers led by Jagdish Khubchandani, professor at the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation at New Mexico State University used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 2005 to 2010 and compared it with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention death rates.

A total of 4,719 women ages 45 and older were identified. Of these women, 5.1% had breast cancer and 12.7% had depression. After a roughly 8 year follow-up, researchers found that women with breast cancer and depression were 3 times more likely to die than women with just breast cancer.

Compared with women without breast cancer and depression or those who had breast cancer or depression, those who only had breast cancer were 1.45 or 1.43 times more likely to die.

“These findings can be explained by a complex interplay of numerous factors along multiple psychosocial and biological pathways,” Khubchandani writes. “Forpsychosocial pathways, it is known that individuals with psychological distress may not be able to take care of themselves (e.g., unhealthy lifestyles), engage in health risk behaviors (e.g., substance use), might lack social and emotional support, or may not have the resources to adequately manage their cancer diagnosis and co-occurring health problems.”

Previous studies exploring this connection failed to account for other variables such as sociodemographic characteristics such as marital status or education. Other studies were also smaller or included only older adults.

Researchers found that the most common characteristics contributing to mortality were age, income and marital status.

Worldwide, more than a quarter of women with breast cancer have depression, according to studies published in PubMed.

The results of this study demonstrate a need for physical as well as psychological support for women battling breast cancer. This may come in the form of support from a social worker or from a physician who should be regularly checking physical wellness as well as mental.

There are a couple of limitations associated with this study. Observational studies such as this one cannot describe cause and effect relationships. For example, in this study it was no possible to tell which came first, the depression or the breast cancer. The reliance on self-reported data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey could also affect limit validity.