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Anti-depressant Use Linked With Obesity: Presented at CPA
By Donalee Moulton
HALIFAX, CANADA -- November 5, 2003 -- Anti-depressant use is associated with obesity, according to research presented here November 1st at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
"Most prevalence studies report a greater risk of depression among obese individuals, although this is not universally accepted. Our objective was to examine the prevalence of anti-depressant use among various subsets of obesity," explained Tanis Adey, MD, assistant professor, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada.
Participants in the study were drawn from a population-based obesity research initiative currently underway, and all participants had to have been taking an anti-depressant at the time of the study. Each study member was assessed and placed into 1 of 3 primary groups based on body mass index (BMI). The groups ranged from pre-obese (a BMI between 25.1 and 30) to morbidly obese (a BMI greater than 45.1). The obese group was further divided into 4 subsets ranging from mildly obese to morbidly obese.
A total of 875 participants were evaluated: 196 were pre-obese, 70 had a normal BMI, and 609 were obese. Nine of the participants (12.8%) with a normal BMI were using anti-depressants as compared with 145 (23.8%) of the obese patients. Moderately obese and morbidly obese patients had the highest rate of anti-depressant use: 26.8% and 26.0%, respectively.
No differences were found among the obesity subgroups as a result of age, sex, education or marital status. In addition, the relationship between obesity and anti-depressant use was not found to be linear, noted Dr. Adey, but seems to level out between a BMI of 35.1 and 40.
[Study Title: Prevalence of Anti-Depressant use Among Obese Patients. Abstract P1-26]
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