Dr. Gabor Maté on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1869
SUBJECT: HEALTH
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
So, for example, there was a study out of Harvard University, I think three years ago, women with severe PTSD have double the risk of ovarian cancer.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
A 2019 study by researchers affiliated with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, using data from the Nurses' Health Study II, did find that women reporting high levels of PTSD symptoms had roughly double the age-adjusted risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women with no trauma exposure (hazard ratio 2.10, 95% CI 1.12-3.95). However, this association weakened and lost statistical significance once the researchers adjusted for known ovarian cancer and health risk factors such as smoking and hormonal history (adjusted HR 1.86, 95% CI 0.98-3.51, meaning the result was no longer statistically distinguishable from no effect). The study was observational and prospective/retrospective in design; the authors explicitly framed it as showing an association requiring further mechanistic research, not proof that PTSD causes ovarian cancer. Maté's citation of "double the risk" is accurate to the study's headline unadjusted figure and the timing (roughly three years prior, matching the September 2019 publication) is correct, but presenting it as an established causal finding overstates what a single observational cohort study, with a weakened and non-significant result after adjustment, actually demonstrates.