Implications for practice and research

• Collaboration between primary care and psychiatry is needed for evidence-base practices addressing noncompliance rate in preventive care practice.

• The use of a qualitative study would provide an opportunity to explore some of the modifiable factors contributing to the cancer mortality gap, like the stigmatisation of mental illness and individual’s ability to attend health clinics from the participant’s perspectives.

Context

A study, from Northern Ireland involving 57,328, reports a relationship between women undergoing psychiatric treatments with a decline in attending breast screening centers.1 ,2 While the incidence rate of breast cancers in women diagnosed with psychiatric ailments receiving treatments was comparable to the general population, the fatality rates were significantly higher in the individuals undergoing psychiatric treatments and even higher in the participants on anxiolytics …