Few studies have evaluated mental health disorders comprehensively among patients with prostate cancer on long-term follow-up. The primary aim of our study was to assess the incidence of mental health disorders among patients with prostate cancer compared with a general population cohort. A secondary aim was to investigate potential risk factors for mental health disorders among patients with prostate cancer.
Cohorts of 18 134 patients with prostate adenocarcinomas diagnosed between 2004 and 2017 and 73470 men without cancer matched on age, birth state, and follow-up time were identified. Mental health diagnoses were identified from electronic health records and statewide health-care facilities data. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios. All statistical tests were 2-sided.
The hazard ratios for mood disorders, including depression, among prostate cancer survivors increased for all follow-up periods compared with the general population. The hazard ratios for any mental illness increased with Hispanic, Black, or multiple races; people who were underweight or obese; those with advanced prostate cancer; and those undergoing their first course cancer treatment. We also observed statistically significantly increased hazard ratios for mental health disorders among patients with lower socioeconomic status (P < .0001) and increasing duration of androgen-deprivation therapy (P = .0348). Prostate cancer survivors had a 61% increased hazard ratio for death with a depression diagnosis.
Prostate cancer diagnosis was associated with a higher risk of mental health disorders compared with the general population, which was observed as long as 10-16 years after cancer diagnosis. Providing long-term mental health support may be beneficial to increasing life expectancy for patients with prostate cancer.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2023 Oct 23 [Epub ahead of print]
Siqi Hu, Chun-Pin Chang, John Snyder, Vikrant Deshmukh, Michael Newman, Ankita Date, Carlos Galvao, Benjamin Haaland, Christina A Porucznik, Lisa H Gren, Alejandro Sanchez, Shane Lloyd, Brock O'Neil, Mia Hashibe
Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., Pedigree and Population Resource, Population Sciences, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., Division of Public Health, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA., Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.