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The good news or the bad news?
I always want the bad news first — get it out of the way, and then follow up with something more palatable. So here it is: People with schizophrenia have an elevated risk of colon cancer.
The good news? They have a lower risk of respiratory cancer.
Cancer Risk Varies in Patients with Schizophrenia
liz | 4:57 PM | Uncategorized
Liz Spikol was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 20th century. She started writing about her experience as a person with mental illness in 1999, while employed at Philadelphia Weekly as the paper’s managing editor. Aside from serving as that paper’s web editor, music editor, staff writer, senior editor, executive editor and a host of other random roles that she couldn’t make up her mind about, she has also worked as a Spanish teacher, as a Certified Peer Specialist during Philly’s system-wide transformation and as a communications specialist for a prison reform organization. Currently, she works at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and writes book reviews for PW. This blog — named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 and 2008 by PsychCentral — is about medications, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, SAD (and many other acronyms), mad pride, Big Pharma, celebrities, hospitals, stigma and the recovery movement. And other stuff.
Sadly, just another health issue for consumers of mental health services. In the Era of Wellness & Recovery, too many won’t live to see either.
“Prevalence, Severity, and Co-occurrence of Chronic Physical Health Problems of Persons With Serious Mental Illness”: (excerpted) – “Seventy-four percent of the study sample (N=109) [based on Medicaid claims] had been given a diagnosis of at least one chronic health problem, and 50 percent (N=73) had been given a diagnosis of two or more chronic health problems.”
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/55/11/1250
As for the likelihood that there will be more proactive monitoring of the health of persons with schizophrenia, one has to wonder if the words and deeds will ever interest.
“Clinicians Urged To Better Monitor Drug-Related Side Effects”: (excerpted) – “Based on data from several studies presented at APA’s annual meeting, it appears that less than 10 percent of patients on the medications [second generation antipsychotics] are being monitored using the APA/ADA consensus protocol.”
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/41/13/1-a
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