• All News
• Consumer
• Pro
• New Drugs
• Pipeline
• Clinical Trials
• FDA Alerts

Suicide Attempt, Death Up for Spouses of Patients With Cancer

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Aug 21, 2024.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 20, 2024 -- Spouses of patients with cancer have an increased risk for suicide attempt and suicide death, especially during the first year after diagnosis, according to a study published online Aug. 15 in JAMA Oncology.

Qianwei Liu, M.D., Ph.D., from the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues estimated the risk for suicide attempt and suicide death among spouses of patients with cancer using registry-based data from 1986 through 2016 in a nationwide cohort study in Denmark. The study included 409,338 individuals who had a spouse with cancer diagnosed during 1986 to 2015 and 2,046,682 individuals whose spouse did not have a cancer diagnosis during the same period.

The researchers identified 2,714 and 9,994 incident cases of suicide attempt among exposed and unexposed individuals, respectively (incidence rates, 62.6 and 50.5 per 100,000 person-years, respectively) and 711 and 2,270 cases of suicide death among exposed and unexposed individuals, respectively (incidence rates, 16.3 and 11.4 per 100,000 person-years, respectively). Among spouses of patients with cancer, the risks for suicide attempt and suicide death were increased throughout follow-up (hazard ratios, 1.28 and 1.47, respectively). The increased risk was higher during the first year after cancer diagnosis (hazard ratios, 1.45 and 2.56 for suicide attempt and suicide death, respectively). When cancer was diagnosed at an advanced stage or when the spouse died after cancer diagnosis, the risk increase for both suicide attempt and suicide death was greater.

"Clinical and societal awareness is therefore needed to help prevent suicidal behaviors in this vulnerable population," the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Editorial (subscription or payment may be required)

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted August 2024

More news resources

• FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
• Daily MedNews
• News for Health Professionals
• New Drug Approvals
• New Drug Applications
• Drug Shortages
• Clinical Trial Results
• Generic Drug Approvals

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.