Is a cancer diagnosis associated with subsequent risk of transient global amnesia?

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Psychological stress has been associated with transient global amnesia (TGA). Whether a cancer diagnosis, a severely stressful life event, is associated with subsequent risk of TGA has not been studied.

METHODS:

Based on the Swedish Cancer Register and Patient Register, we conducted a prospective cohort study including 5,365,608 Swedes at age 30 and above during 2001-2009 to examine the relative risk of TGA among cancer patients, as compared to cancer-free individuals. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) derived from Poisson regression were used as estimates of the association between cancer diagnosis and the risk of TGA.

RESULTS:

During the study 322,558 individuals (6.01%) received a first diagnosis of cancer. We identified 210 cases of TGA among the cancer patients (incidence rate, 0.22 per 1000 person-years) and 4,887 TGA cases among the cancer-free individuals (incidence rate, 0.12 per 1000 person-years). Overall, after adjustment for age, sex, calendar year, socioeconomic status, education and civil status, cancer patients had no increased risk of TGA than the cancer-free individuals (IRR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.86-1.13). The IRRs did not differ over time since cancer diagnosis or across individual cancer types. The null association was neither modified by sex, calendar period or age.

CONCLUSION:

Our study did not provide support for the hypothesis that patients with a new diagnosis of cancer display a higher risk of TGA than cancer-free individuals.

• Authors: Jianwei Zhu, Donghao Lu, Olafur Sveinsson, Karin Wirdefeldt, Katja Fall, Fredrik Piehl, Unnur Valdimarsdóttir, Fang Fang
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 10 Issue 4 Pg. e0122960 ( 2015) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 25849383 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Topics

• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Amnesia, Transient Global (epidemiology, etiology)
• Case-Control Studies
• Female
• Humans
• Incidence
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Multivariate Analysis
• Neoplasms (diagnosis, psychology)
• Prospective Studies
• Risk Factors