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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Obesity May Cause Psychiatric Disorders but Decrease
Odds of Substance Abuse
Link between obesity and mood disorders appeared
strongest in non-Hispanic whites and those with higher education levels
July 4, 2006 - Obesity is associated with a 25
percent increase in the risk of developing mood and anxiety disorders
and a 25 percent decrease in likeliness for substance abuse, according
to a paper in the July issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, one
of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Health & Medicine |
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About 31 percent of all U.S. adults were obese in
2000, an increase from 23 percent in 1990, according to background
information in the article. Obese adults are at higher risk of diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and other harmful conditions. Previous studies
have suggested a link between obesity and depression, but little
research has examined the associations between obesity and other
psychiatric disorders.
Editor's Note: To easily check your BMI use
our handy table - click here.
Gregory E. Simon, M.D., M.P.H., of the Group Health
Cooperative, Seattle, and colleagues studied 9,125 adults from across
the country who were interviewed as part of a large national survey of
mental disorders between Feb. 5, 2001, and Feb. 12, 2003.
Participants (average age 44.8 years) completed an
in-home interview that included questions about demographic
characteristics, height, weight and psychiatric disorders. These
included mood disorders, such as major depression, dysthymia (persistent
mild depression with associated symptoms) and bipolar disorder; anxiety
disorders, such as panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder; and
substance abuse disorders, including alcohol or drug dependence.
Of all the participants, 6,795 had a body mass
index (BMI) of less than 30 and 2,330 had a BMI of 30 or greater and
were therefore considered obese. Those who were obese had a higher
prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders and a lower prevalence of
substance abuse disorders over their lifetimes. These associations
remained similar for men and women.
The link between obesity and mood disorders
appeared strongest in non-Hispanic whites and in those with higher
education levels.
"The estimated prevalence of lifetime mood disorder
in those with BMIs below 30 and in those with BMIs 30 or higher
translates to a population-attributable risk of 24 percent, which
indicates that nearly one-quarter of the cases of obesity in the general
population are attributable to the association with mood disorder," the
authors write.
"This calculation illustrates the public health
importance of the association but does not indicate a direction for the
causal relationship. It is equally correct to state that more than
one-fifth of cases of mood disorder in the general population are
attributable to the association with obesity."
Increased appetite, weight gain, reduced physical
activity and binge eating have all been associated with depression,
potentially increasing risk for obesity.
However, obesity could also contribute to
depression by limiting physical activity, or through the stigma that may
be associated with being overweight, especially among some women and
other particular sociodemographic groups.
An unknown third cause also could be linked to
both. The results also do not indicate the mechanisms behind the
negative association between obesity and substance abuse.
"We conclude that obesity is meaningfully
associated with a range of common mood and anxiety disorders in the
general U.S. population," the authors write.
"Obesity is associated with a moderately lower risk
of substance use disorder. Variation in the obesity-depression
relationship by education level and race/ethnicity suggests an important
role of social or cultural factors in mediating or moderating the
relationship between obesity and mood disorders."
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