ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2018
Use of antipsychotics and risk of breast cancer: a Danish nationwide case-control study.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Breast Cancer Risk in over 1.3 Million Women on Antipsychotic Therapy: Life-Saving Drugs or Hidden Trigger for Breast Cancer?Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Antipsychotic therapy and breast cancer risk: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis.Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Association of antipsychotic use with breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies with over 2 million individuals.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Antipsychotic exposure is an independent risk factor for breast cancer: A systematic review of epidemiological evidence.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Psychotropic Medication Use and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Risk.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2020Trial
- Antipsychotics use increases the risk of breast cancer in Women: Findings from systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- A psychiatric medication, clozapine, induces autophagy and apoptosis in breast cancer cells through reactive oxygen species.PloS one · 2025Article
- Antipsychotic Use and Risk of Breast Cancer in Women With Severe Mental Illness: Replication of a Nationwide Nested Case-Control Database Study.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2024Article
- Association between prolactin increasing antipsychotic use and the risk of breast cancer: a retrospective observational cohort study in a United States Medicaid population.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
- Clinical decision-making before discharge in hospitalized persons with schizophrenia: a Spanish Delphi expert consensus.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Logic-based modeling and drug repurposing for the prediction of novel therapeutic targets and combination regimens against E2F1-driven melanoma progression.BMC chemistry · 2023Article
- Article
- Association between long-term use of prolactin-elevating antipsychotics in women and the risk of breast cancer: What are the clinical implications?Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists · 2023Article
- Association of the use of psychotropic drugs with hospitalization, cardiovascular events, and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes: a propensity score-matched cohort study.Frontiers in clinical diabetes and healthcare · 2023Article
- Risk of Breast Cancer in Association with the Use of Second-generation Antipsychotics.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- The Risk of Antipsychotic Drugs on Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Oman medical journal · 2022Review
- Haloperidol and Other Antipsychotics Exposure before Endometrial Cancer Diagnosis: A Population-based Case-control Study.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Italian Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AME) and International Chapter of Clinical Endocrinology (ICCE). Position statement for clinical practice: prolactin-secreting tumors.European journal of endocrinology · 2022Article
- Risk-to-befit ratios of consecutive antidepressants for heavy menstrual bleeding in young women with bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsSome antipsychotics increase prolactin levels, which might increase the risk of breast cancer. Existing evidence is conflicting and based on sparse data, especially for the increasingly used second-generation antipsychotics. We conducted a nationwide case-control study of the association between antipsychotic use and incident breast cancer.
methodsFrom the Danish Cancer Registry, we identified women with a first-time diagnosis of breast cancer 2000-2015 (n = 60 360). For each case, we age-matched 10 female population controls. Using conditional logistic regression, we calculated odds ratios (ORs) for breast cancer associated with use of antipsychotics. We stratified antipsychotics by first- and second-generation status and by ability to induce elevation of prolactin.
resultsIn total, 4951 cases (8.1%) and 47 643 controls (7.9%) had ever used antipsychotics. Long-term use (≥10 000 mg olanzapine equivalents) was associated with breast cancer, with an adjusted OR of 1.18 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06, 1.32]. A weak dose-response pattern was seen, with ORs increasing to 1.27 (95% CI 1.01, 1.59) for ≥50 000 mg olanzapine equivalents. Associations were similar for first- and second-generation antipsychotics (ORs 1.17 vs. 1.11), but also for nonprolactin inducing-antipsychotics (OR 1.17). Stratifying by oestrogen receptor status, positive associations were seen for oestrogen receptor-positive cancers (long-term use: OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.13, 1.47) while no associations were observed for oestrogen receptor-negative cancers.
conclusionsOverall, our results do not suggest a clinically important association between antipsychotic use and risk of breast cancer. The importance of drug-induced prolactin elevation is unclear but may lead to a slightly increased risk of oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.