This study from the University of South Australia and the University of Exeter provides strong evidence that obesity is responsible for the frequent development of depression. And this even in the absence of other health problems. The findings, to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, show that, more than the comorbidities of obesity, it is really the psychological impact of excess weight that causes depression.
The researchers examined the medical and genetic data of more than 48,000 people listed in the British Biobank, suffering from depression and compared this data with that of a control group made up of more than 290,000 people born between 1938 and 1971. The researchers have isolated the psychological component of obesity, the impact of obesity-related health problems, by identifying by genomic analysis, the genes associated with a high body mass index (BMI) but also with a lower risk of disease such as diabetes or heart disease.
The team thus shows that these genes specifically and only associated with BMI are just as strongly associated with depression as those associated with both a high BMI and other comorbidities such as diabetes.
- This suggests that being overweight alone promotes the development of depression with or without related health problems;
- this effect appears to be particularly marked in women. At the ends of the BMI spectrum, very thin men are more prone to depression than normal-weight men or very thin women.
The global epidemic of obesity is worrying enough, with its comorbidities including cancer and cardiovascular disease, not to add to it without trying anything this increased risk of depression, conclude the researchers. They call on clinicians to also take into account the psychological risk in the management of the obese patient.
.jpg)
