OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to assess the incidence of breast
cancer among chronic psychiatric patients. METHOD: They reviewed mammograms
and charts of 275 female patients over the age of 40 in a state psychiatric
hospital and 928 women of comparable age at a general hospital radiology
clinic. RESULTS: The incidence of breast cancer documented by pathology
reports among the psychiatric patients was more than 3.5 times higher than
that of patients at the general hospital and 9.5 times higher than the
reported incidence in the general population. CONCLUSIONS: If confirmed,
the suspected higher incidence of breast cancer among the psychiatric
patients might be due to medications and further underscores the need for
screening mammograms for breast cancer in these patients.Abstract Teaser