Doctors call for suicide watch on cancer patients

Published on Sunday 18 February 2007 00:05

CANCER patients should be considered for suicide watch in case the trauma of the disease makes them take their own life, leading scientists have claimed.

A team of experts from Edinburgh University have found that people suffering from cancer are typically 50% more likely to end their own lives than the rest of the population.

They believe patients are most likely to kill themselves in the immediate aftermath of being diagnosed with the illness and that cancer nurses should give anti-depressants.

The scientists also want families and doctors to flag up cancer patients showing signs of depression so that they can be treated.

The Edinburgh University study analysed the records of 315,000 Scottish adults with cancer over a period of 14 years and found that 131 of them (82 men and 49 women) committed suicide.

That figure was 58 more suicides than would be the case in the general population. And when the data was analysed for age and sex, the conclusion was that cancer sufferers were one and a half times as likely to end their lives as healthy people.

The study also found patients actually wanted to kill themselves rather than make a 'cry for help' through attempting to take their own lives.

Dr Ross Camidge, who was clinical lecturer in cancer therapeutics at the University of Edinburgh at the time the research was conducted and is now assistant professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado, said: "The increased risk of suicide in cancer patients is a genuine phenomenon, supported by data from several other countries.

"There is evidence that the greatest risk occurs soonest after diagnosis and may be associated with overwhelming feelings of hopelessness.

"This research may help target useful interventions, such as counselling or home visits, to those at greatest risk for suicide or accidents at the time of their cancer diagnosis."

Nick Bateman, professor of clinical toxicology at Edinburgh University and senior author of the article, said: "This work shows clearly for the first time in the UK a small, but potentially preventable, cause of death in the population with a cancer diagnosis.

"It's understandable that patients are deeply affected when they hear about the cancer diagnosis, but nowadays there is a lot that can be done to help them, so it's tragic when people take their own lives."

He added: "As far as treatment is concerned, we would use anti-depressants and counselling. A cancer nurse could give anti-depressant drugs." But he said that committing a patient to a psychiatric hospital "would be extremely unusual. It would be very much the exception."

A spokesman for Cancer Research UK added: "Extreme depression in cancer sufferers is a known and serious issue and this study adds to our understanding of it."

While the link between cancer and severe depression is clear, scientists do not know whether the connection has something to do with the cancer actually having a physiological effect on the chemicals and nerves that affect their mood or whether the effect is mainly due to the news of the diagnosis affecting a person so severely that they want to end their own life.

Mike Sharpe, professor of psychological medicine and symptoms research at Edinburgh University, who is analysing depression among cancer patients as part of a 4m project by Cancer Research UK, said: "This research points to a risk, albeit a small risk, not all cancer patients are going to go and commit suicide.

"We have been screening all our cancer patients for suicide and depression and there's no reason why a person cannot receive treatment for both cancer and depression, whether that might be drugs or perhaps cognitive behaviour therapy."

Sharpe added: "There may be some kind of chemical process at work here. But that's not known. There seems to be a link between a history of depression and serious depression when cancer is diagnosed."

Last year, a survey by Macmillan Cancer Support showed that almost half of cancer patients suffered depression, with a third saying relationships were put under strain and 7% breaking up with their partner as a direct result of their cancer.

A fifth felt abandoned with a quarter insisting they had no-one to talk to. Just over a third of people with cancer said they found the support system "confusing".