Racial Differences in Incidence of Anxiety and Depression Among Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction Patients Using the All of Us Database

Background: Breast reconstruction after mastectomy may improve psychological sequelae for patients. The objective of this study is to characterize differences in depression and anxiety rates for mastectomy and breast reconstruction (BR) patients by race. Methods: The All of Us database was utilized for patients who underwent mastectomy and BR post-mastectomy. Anxiety and depression rates and self-identified race were extracted from DatasetV7. Results: Of mastectomy patients, 2398 were White and 472 were Black. Black patients had the greatest difference in depression rates between mastectomy (44.5%) and BR patients (28.8%) (OR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.26-0.82). White patients had lower depression rates (40.4%) for mastectomy than Black patients. Asian patients had the lowest rates of depression for mastectomy (OR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.22-0.84) and for mastectomy and BR (OR = 0.35). Black patients had a decrease in anxiety rates from mastectomy (49.4%) to BR (40.9%) (OR = 0.67). Conclusions: Anxiety and depression varied significantly by race for mastectomy and BR patients. Black mastectomy patients had the highest rates of depression and anxiety, which decreased after receiving BR. Lower rates of anxiety and depression were found amongst Asian mastectomy patients. These data highlight the need to identify and treat races vulnerable to depression and anxiety before and after mastectomy/BR.