Psychiatry · Oncology ·
OCD not linked to overall cancer risk in Swedish and Danish cohorts
A population-based matched cohort study in Sweden and Denmark found no association between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and overall cancer incidence. Among people diagnosed with cancer, OCD was associated with higher all-cause mortality, but not a clear difference in cancer-specific mortality.
- Overall cancer risk was similar in people with and without OCD.
- Post-cancer all-cause mortality was higher with OCD.
- Cancer-specific mortality showed no clear difference.
- Lower prostate cancer and melanoma risks were observed in Sweden.
Researchers used national register data to compare people with OCD with matched individuals without OCD in Sweden and Denmark, also conducting sibling-matched analyses. The population-based cohorts included 57,239 people with OCD and 1,144,780 controls; follow-up assessed overall and site-specific cancer incidence. In the Swedish cohort, mortality was assessed after a cancer diagnosis.
Cancer developed in 1,372 people with OCD (2.4%) and 30,376 controls (2.7%). Overall cancer risk was similar between groups (pooled hazard ratio [HR] 0.99, 95% CI 0.94–1.04). In Sweden, OCD was associated with lower risks of prostate cancer (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.65–0.97) and melanoma (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.51–0.89). After cancer diagnosis, cancer-specific mortality did not differ clearly (HR 1.10, 95% CI 0.97–1.25), while all-cause mortality was higher among people with OCD (HR 1.27, 95% CI 1.14–1.42).
The findings do not indicate an increased overall cancer burden in people with OCD. The higher all-cause mortality after cancer diagnosis may warrant attention to comorbid conditions, but the observational results do not establish a cause. The mortality analysis described was conducted in the Swedish population-matched cohort, which limits how broadly it can be generalized.
In practice
For people with OCD, these register-based Swedish and Danish cohorts found no increased overall cancer incidence compared with matched controls. Among patients with cancer in the Swedish mortality analysis, cancer-specific mortality was not clearly different, while all-cause mortality was higher. This observational association does not show that OCD causes excess mortality or identify its explanation; the authors point to comorbid conditions as a possible focus. The results do not support changing cancer screening or treatment on the basis of OCD alone.
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BMC Medicine: Cancer morbidity and mortality in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a population-based and sibling cohort study in Sweden and Denmark ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.