A Heuristic Model of Primary Brain Cancers and Serious Mental Illnesses, etc., Supporting the Idea of Different Clinical Expres- sions with Aging of the Same Epigenetic Factors

Abstract

Introduction: Combined epidemiological hospital data on primary brain diagnoses; primary brain cancers and serious mental illnesses, etc., of the age on first admission are suggestive of common epigenetic factors, among others. We propose a heuristic model combining age distributions of both entities which show patterns of a composed normal distribution supporting the idea of different clinical expressions with aging of the same epigenetic factors.

Methods: Retrospective data from Electronic Patients Records (EPR), TUHC “Mother Teresa”, Albania, years 2005-2021, were analyzed after creating cutoffs on age, county (capital), first admission and diagnosis groups. Combination of age at first hospitalization for the main groups of diagnoses was tested for normality, hypothesized to be a composed normal distribution.

Results: The total number of patients for the period 2005-2021, was 48,303 admissions. First admissions were N=31,603 (65.4%), of which N=15,896 (50.3%) were from Tirana (the capital) county. The number of first admissions for the two main categories ‘Mental Disorders’ and ‘Other’ for Tirana (the capital) county were respectively; 6,807 (42.8%) and 9,089 (57.2%). Age on first admission mean (median) for Tirana county was 35.1 ± 22.1 (36.0) years. Age on first admission, mean (median), for the two categories for Tirana county were respectively; 37.7 ± 15.4 (37.2) years and 33.0 ± 26.3 (31.0) years and split by sex; male (36.2 ± 15.4 (35.3) years and 32.4 ± 26.4 (28.0) years, p<0.001) and female (39.4 ± 15.4 (39.6) years and 33.8 ± 33.0 (26.0) years, p<0.019). Age-specific distribution (> 15years) data on ‘Mental Disorders’, ‘Other’ and ‘Total’ for Tirana county test positive about normality, Shapiro-Wilk > 0.005 but data for ‘mental disorders’ don’t pass the ‘‘95% range check’’.

Conclusion: Independent and common factors of brain cancers and serious mental illnesses, etc., show patterns of a composed normal distribution at the age of first hospitalization