title: Patterns of psychiatric medication use among nationally representative long-term cancer survivors and controls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Investigations of long-term cancer survivors (LTCS) indicate that this population is not appreciably different from cancer-naive peers with respect to several neuropsychiatric domains. The current study sought to determine whether differences in psychiatric medication use might help to explain the negative findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a nationally representative sample, 5692 subjects were queried for cancer history, psychiatric diagnoses, and psychotropic medication use. The LTCS were defined as those individuals who were ≥5 years from diagnosis and whose cancer was in remission or cured. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained from multivariable logistic regression models evaluating the relationship between cancer status and use of psychiatric medications. The interaction between case/control status and psychiatric diagnoses was also tested in a logistic regression model to predict psychotropic medication use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 225 participants met the criteria for LTCS and 3953 met the criteria for cancer-naive controls (CNC). The LTCS were no more likely than CNC to carry a psychiatric diagnosis. Despite the LTCS reporting somewhat greater psychotropic medication use compared with the CNC (28.8% vs 22.3%), unadjusted and adjusted differences did not reach statistical significance, possibly due to sample size. The interaction between case/control status and carrying a psychiatric diagnosis was not found to be significantly associated with receiving a psychiatric medication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LTCS and CNC demonstrated comparable rates of psychiatric prescription medication use. The relationship between taking a psychiatric medication and carrying a psychiatric diagnosis was not found to be significantly different between the case and control groups. These findings contribute to an emerging hypothesis that in general LTCS are not a particularly psychiatrically vulnerable group.
authors.affiliation: Division of Adult Psychosocial Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Ilana M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Sowmya R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Fremonta L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fedele
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: cancer survivors; epidemiology; psychiatric diagnosis; psychopharmacology; psychosocial oncology