Among adherents of the psychosomatic nature of diseases, there is a popular opinion that depression and an increased level of anxiety contribute to the development of cancer. Psychologists often like to talk about this in an attempt to find out how a person with cancer came to “such a life.”
Moreover, this hypothesis is supported by some studies, although others, on the contrary, do not find a connection between these pathologies. In general, so far the results of both those and others look unconvincing.
An international team of scientists, which included specialists from the University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands), decided to learn more about this issue. They analyzed numerous studies on the relationship between cancer, depression and anxiety conducted in the Netherlands, the UK, Norway and Canada. The scientists’ conclusions presented in Cancer magazine.
A total of 319,613 adults participated in the studies. Scientists have not found an association between depression, anxiety and various cancers, such as breast and prostate, colon, lung, and alcohol-associated cancers.
However, the researchers also found that the risk of developing lung cancer with depression and increased levels of anxiety is still increased by six percent. However, after adjusting for other cancer-related risk factors (eg, alcohol use or elevated body mass index), the correlation between lung cancer (and other cancers associated with smoking), depression, and anxiety decreased significantly.
Perhaps the same smoking or increased BMI may be due to depression and anxiety, but scientists have not identified a direct relationship between these factors. Although they emphasized that further research is still needed for a more complete picture.
2023-08-07 10:57:55
#Scientists #disprove #famous #hypothesis #connection #cancer #depression #Naked #Science