Childhood cancer survivors consider suicide

Adults who survive childhood cancers are more likely to think about and attempt suicide than the general public. That's the conclusion of the first study to substantiate a significant level of suicidal symptoms many years, even decades, after treatment for childhood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Suicidal thoughts and acts were reported by one of every 13 survivors, a much higher number than had been expected by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"Most of the people are doing fine, but there is a serious concern about a significant minority of survivors who have thought about and attempted to end their lives," notes Christopher Recklitis, a Harvard Medical School psychologist.

As Recklitis and his colleagues expected, pain and failing physical health are the major reasons that push these people into thinking about taking their lives. Loss of physical functions and pain topped the list of risk factors even when depression, a well-known suicide trigger, was taken into account.

"This finding has important implications for developing programs to identify those cancer survivors at risk for [suicide] because it implies that screening for depression alone may not be adequate," the researchers comment in the Aug. 30 issue of the Journal for Clinical Oncology.