A new study from the United States has shown that people who suffer with depression are far more likely to be obese and to smoke than people who are not depressed. The knock on effect of this statistic is that those suffering from depression are also more likely to suffer from the chronic diseases associated with smoking and obesity.
The research comes from the Division of Adult and Community Health in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The lead author, Tara Strine, said, "The relationship between obesity and depression is plausible for several reasons. First, some patients who are overweight may be prone to depression because of societal attitudes towards obesity. Also, while depression can lead to decreased appetite and weight loss in some individuals, others eat more and gain weight.” It seems then that many patients suffering from obesity are in a no win situation. The depression causes them to overeat and to smoke and the resulting weight gains lead to them becoming more depressed.
The results were taken from interviewing more than 200,000 adults in 38 American States. About 8.7 percent of the respondents had current depression, 15.7 percent had a previous depression diagnosis and 11.3 percent had had an anxiety diagnosis at some time. The people who were currently suffering from depression were 60 percent more likely to be obese as people who were not depressed. The depressed respondents were also twice as likely to be smokers than their non-depressed counterparts. The survey also highlighted that people with depression were more likely to have problems with alcohol.
Whilst perhaps not revelatory, the results do show the inherent difficulties people have in tackling obesity and the importance of treating patients as soon as they become overweight. Ignoring a patient’s condition, the survey suggests, will make it much more difficult to treat at a later date.