Suicide risk higher after surgery for cancer

A STUDY BY A TEAM of HMS researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital has found that adults in the United States who undergo major operations for cancer have a significantly higher incidence of suicide than that of people in the general population. The risk was shown to be highest among patients who were male, white, and divorced or single. The researchers also found that approximately 50 percent of these deaths occurred within the first three years after the surgical treatments.

Previous studies have found that an estimated 6 to 38 percent of patients who undergo cancer operations develop major depressive symptoms after surgical treatment. This study, according to the authors, is one of the first to consider the risk of suicide in this patient population. This result is troubling, they say, because there are currently no organized programs in place to implement regular screening for distress in these patients.

Although patients who receive surgical treatment for their cancer often have excellent long-term survival rates, these surgeries can be stressful, and patients can face long and complicated postoperative recoveries. These factors, together with the possibility of postoperative symptoms of depression, may contribute to an increased risk of suicide in this patient population, according to the study team.

The findings, say team members, point to the need for regular screenings for distress and assessment for suicide risk among all patients who undergo surgery for cancer.

Potter AL et al., JAMA Oncology, January 2023

PSYCHIATRY Face blindness more prevalent than thought

THE FACE-RECOGNITION DEFICIT known as prosopagnosia has long been thought to be prevalent in no more than 2.5 percent of the world’s population. A recent study by HMS and VA Boston Healthcare System psychiatrists, however, indicates that this estimate