Mood disorders higher in men when partner suffers breast cancer
According to a new 13-year study conducted by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, having a wife with breast cancer significantly increases the husband’s chance of developing mood-related disorders.
The study showed Danish men whose partners passed away from breast cancer had 3.6 times higher chance of having a mood disorder than men whose partners survived, the study said.
This is the biggest study that examined the mental health of husbands whose wives have been diagnosed with the cancer.
Breast cancer was diagnosed in partners of 20,358 men who were involved in the study over the period of 13 years. A hundred and eighty of these men were hospitalized due to serious mood problems, which was higher than men having partners without breast cancer.
However, the overall risk of hospitalization among the men was about the same, and the new study does not confirm that the women's cancer directly caused the men to have additional mental problems.
The findings of the study were published in the September edition of the journal ‘Cancer’.