Open Access

REVIEW

Suicide in Digestive System Cancers: A Scoping Review

Jie Chen^1,2, Xiaoping Ding^1,2, Xin Peng³, Deying Hu^1,3,*

1 Department of Nursing, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430000, China
2 School of Nursing, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430000, China
3 Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430000, China

* Corresponding Author: Deying Hu. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2023, 25(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2022.022578

Received 16 March 2022; Accepted 15 August 2022; Issue published 29 November 2022

Abstract

Digestive system cancers are important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cancer patients are more likely to commit suicide. The objective of this scoping review is to provide a comprehensive and updated summary of the existing literature on suicide among patients with digestive system cancers to identify the incidence and risk factors relevant to suicide in these populations. The PRISMA-Scr (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension protocol for scoping reviews) protocol was used. The review was based on relevant articles published prior to January 2022 in databases of Web of Science and PubMed. The authors identified 21 records that met the criteria for inclusion. Among the 21 articles, 18 (n = 85.7%) reported suicide risk factors, 21 (n = 100%) evaluated the incidence of suicide and 16 (n = 76.2%) involved the variation in suicide rates. Only one study comprehensively reported that the suicide rate for this population was 32.8 per 100,000 years and the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 1.91. Most suicides occurred in patients with pancreatic, esophageal, and gastric cancers. The factors associated with suicide in digestive system cancers included male gender, older age, the white race, single status, advanced stage of disease, and cancer metastasis. The most critical time for suicide was in the early post-diagnostic period. It is indispensable to identify suicide in these cancer patients, especially those with high-risk factors. In the future, more prospective research may be needed to provide more reliable support and care to prevent suicide.

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Keywords

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