Schizophrenia tied to low prostate cancer risk

NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) The rate of prostate cancer among men with schizophrenia is lower than in the general population, according to findings published in the journal Urology.

''Lower than expected rates of cancer, in general, have been reported for psychiatric patients for almost a century,'' writes Dr E Fuller Torrey, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.

For his study, the researcher performed a search of the MEDLINE database for all studies of ''prostate cancer'' or ''cancer'' or ''schizophrenia.'' A total of five studies were included in the current analysis.

In all five studies, the prostate cancer rates for schizophrenia patients were lower than expected in the general population. The overall rate of cancer at other body sites varied among the studies.

Possible explanations for the decreased rate of prostate cancer include the effect of antipsychotic drugs (either by protecting against cancer or by decreasing testosterone, or both), and genetic factors, Torrey suggests.

The low rate of prostate cancer in men with schizophrenia ''takes its place epidemiologically alongside other unexplained anomalies of prostate cancer incidence, specifically those involving race and geography,'' Torrey concludes.

REUTERS SY ND1022