Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

T he Socioeconomic Achievement Pressure hypothesis is presented as the environmental cause of Hodgkin lymphoma across the human lifespan and across all ethnicities. This claim is supported by an almost complete coverage of the Hodgkin lymphoma epidemiology with this hypothesis. Based on this hypothesis I contend that the risk for Hodgkin lymphoma can be explained by excess achievement and intellectual pressure in specific individuals because they find it hard to fulfill or to comply with the high standards of socioeconomic and/or intellectual requirements of their family, community or peers. The prolonged and intense cognitive stress might ultimately lead to Hodgkin lymphoma development. Thus intellectual and cognitive stress appear to be the causal sociocultural mechanisms in Hodgkin lymphoma development. Cognitive and intellectual stress appear to cause deregulations of the lymphatic system. The experienced severity of cognitive stress determines what kind of lymphoma the patient will develop. Both intensity and the duration of exposure to cognitive stressors are crucial in lymphoma development. The personal characteristics of the patient are crucial to understand the incidence of Hodgkin lymphoma. Hodgkin lymphoma epidemiology also provides for the causal mechanisms how family dynamics really work. It also clarifies that sociocultural mechanisms rather than genetic explanations appear to be the causal mechanisms underneath the similarities in behavior and preferences of identical twins. This research provides important clues to conduct more thorough and conclusive research on twins, family dynamics and lymphomas in animals.

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