What role does mental health play in surviving or dying from cancer? If we already know that cancer is not essentially due to chance, and that adapting our behaviors can help prevent it, we always wondered if our psychological state had a link with the fact of developing, surviving or dying. of a cancer.
American researchers have just published a study in the journal British Journal of Cancerin which they were interested in patients with a history of mental problems with cancer.
Mental fragility, more risk of death
The result of their study? People with fragile mental health would have less chance of surviving their cancer than others. This analysis stems from the study of 675,000 people diagnosed with the 10 main types of cancer, between 1997 and 2014.
Of the patients studied, half of them were psychologically tested. In the 5 years before their cancer, they studied patients who did not need follow-up, those who needed emergency help and those who had been hospitalized for mental problems.
A total of 7,900 people needed urgent psychological help, and 4,200 were hospitalized for mental reasons. Hospitalized patients saw their chances of survival reduced by 73%, while patients who required urgent psychological help had a 36% increased risk of death.
Mental health would directly impact the body’s ability to defend itself against illness. In addition, patients with psychological fragility would tend to have a more unfavorable lifestyle: less physical activity, poorer diet…
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