Source
New York University College of Dentistry, Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, New York, NY 10003, USA. dem5@nyu.edu
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
We examined whether smoking or drinking during or before the diagnosis-year of oral cancer or oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) was related to "subsequent depression" measured months after the oral diagnosis.
METHODS:
Incident cases of oral cancer or OED were identified via 3 oral pathology laboratories. A telephone-administered questionnaire included questions on smoking/drinking history through the diagnosis-year and measured depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D); scores of 16+ indicated clinical depression. "Subsequent depression" was defined as a CES-D score of 16+, measured at the time of assessment several months after the diagnosis of oral cancer or OED.
RESULTS:
Patients who smoked during their diagnosis-year had twice the odds of subsequent depression relative to former/never smokers. Diagnosis-year (vs never/former) drinking was not associated with depression; however, average alcohol consumption of >1.5 drinks/week was negatively associated with subsequent depression for both diagnosis-year and ex-drinkers (past reported drinking) even among heavy drinkers.
CONCLUSION:
Our findings suggest that subsequent depression is positively associated with diagnosis-year smoking and negatively associated with alcohol consumption of >1.5 drinks/week among both diagnosis-year and ex-drinkers.