the current study had access to the health data of over four million women who were born between 1940 and 1995. using this information, researchers were able to calculate the risk of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions among all women in the group and compare the rate of the disease among those who had been diagnosed with mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability or substance abuse to those who had not.
“our results suggest that women with these diagnoses participate more seldom in screening programs at the same time as they have a higher incidence of lesions in the cervix,” hu said. “we thus found that they have twice the risk of developing cervical cancer.”
although the presence of mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability and substance abuse all increased the risk of cervical cancer, researchers found substance abuse held the strongest association. they encouraged women who may be struggling with their mental health to undergo regular screenings.
“it would lower their risk of cancer,” said karin sundström, one of the paper’s authors and a senior researcher in the department of laboratory medicine at karolinska institutet. “similarly, if health-care professionals are more aware of the cancer risk in these patients, they can step up preventative measures and consider how these could be delivered to potentially underserved patients.”
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