General News Research — 26 May 2015
Depression Raises Risk Of Serious Health Problems: More Reason To Get Treated Now

bigstockphoto_Man_In_Depression_5432510Depression is a painful enough disorder in and of itself, but the kicker is that it brings with it the risk of a number of other serious health problems, not only mental, but physical, too. Studies over just the past couple of weeks have reconfirmed the links between depression and three major health risks: Heart disease, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. This isn’t meant to be doubly depressing, but just to remind us that depression should be treated – vigorously, and as soon as it’s apparent. Below are a few conditions to which depression has been consistently linked in the scientific literature. Although the depression appears to precede the other condition some cases, it’s not always clear which comes first. But whichever way the connection goes, it’s important to figure out what combination of tools is most effective in treating your depression; and this can look different for everyone.

Stroke

A study last week reported that not only does depression significantly increase the risk of stroke (researchers knew this much already), but the risk of stroke was still heightened after the participants recovered from depression. “This is the first study evaluating how changes in depressive symptoms predict changes in stroke risk,” said study author Paola Gilsanz, Yerby Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard’s School of Public Health. “If replicated, these findings suggest that clinicians should seek to identify and treat depressive symptoms as close to onset as possible, before harmful effects on stroke risk start to accumulate.” The participants were only followed for two years, so it’s possible that a longer-term study would find that stroke risk decreased again over the years. But more research will be needed to understand how this all works. Still, since the authors suspect that depression might lead to cumulative damage to the vasculature of the brain, thereby raising risk of stroke, it’s important to get treated for depression as soon as possible.

Heart Disease

Studies have found that in people with depression, the risk of having a heart attack is higher – from 5% to 40%, depending on the severity of the depression. And, as researchers report this week at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting, people with heart disease can be up to five times more likely to die if they also suffer from depression. These connections have been known for some time, and while the mechanisms still aren’t fully understood, there are some good theories. The most obvious explanation is that if you’re depressed, you’re less likely to do things to take care of your physical health, like eat well and exercise, and more likely to be sedentary and make poorer food choices, all of which can lead to heart disease. But there’s probably something else at play: Stress and inflammation. Some researchers have suggested that because there are increases in stress hormones and inflammatory markers in depression, these might lead to damage to the arteries and to plaque buildup. So the relationship seems to work both ways, again suggesting that it’s important to treat, or prevent, both conditions in tandem.

Parkinson’s Disease

Robin Williams was public about his battles with depression, but the public only learned after his death that he’d also suffered from Parkinson’s later in life. Studies have shown consistent links between the two conditions, though it’s not clear which comes first. A large study in Neurology earlier this week found Parkinson’s risk was higher in people with depression, and it was still heightened even after 20 years of remission from depression. “We saw this link between depression and Parkinson’s disease over a time span of more than two decades,” said study author Peter Nordström of the Umeå University in Sweden, “so depression may be a very early symptom of Parkinson’s disease or a risk factor for the disease.” In other words, depression may predispose the brain to Parkinson’s, or it could be an early symptom of incipient Parkinson’s. It’s important to point out, as the authors do, that most people with depression won’t get Parkinson’s; but the connection that is there certainly warrants more investigation.

Dementia/Alzheimer’s disease

Depression, particularly in mid-life, has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease later in life. But again, researchers aren’t sure which comes first, the chicken or the egg. It could be that depression generates brain changes that put the organ at risk for Alzheimer’s – or it could be that depression, particularly in mid-life, is just one of the early symptoms of burgeoning Alzheimer’s disease. Neither scenario is particularly uplifting, if you’re depressed, but the good news is of course that depression is treatable. And the same things that reduce one’s risk for depression, and of relapse – eating brain-healthy foods and getting ample exercise – also reduce the risk of dementia.

Substance Abuse

Depression and drug or alcohol use have gone hand-in-hand for centuries, or perhaps millennia. Alcohol and drugs are clear methods of coping with depression, since they – at least momentarily – ease the symptoms of depression. In the long-run, however, they don’t address the underlying problem, they worsen it, leading to physical and cognitive damage themselves. It’s possible, and in fact critical, to be treated for both co-occurring issues – depression and drug or alcohol dependence – at the same time, and some people say you simply can’t do one without the other.

Obesity and Overweight 

Depression and obesity often occur together, for a couple of different reasons. Just as with chemically addictive substances, food is a common “drug” that people use to cope with depression. Obesity can obviously be the fallout for that reason alone. However, it may also be that overweight and obesity could actually trigger depression: Since the conditions create inflammation in the body, it’s this inflammation that raises depression risk. A number of researchers now believe that depression is fundamentally an inflammatory condition in the brain, which may be brought on, at least in part, by increased inflammation in the body. Because of the psychological element of obesity (i.e., food being a coping mechanism for grief, depression, anxiety, or trauma), it’s important to get to the bottom of why that began in the first place. But like other conditions, the connection between depression and obesity likely goes both ways.

And the many others

There are other, less dangerous, but still concerning, conditions that are linked to depression – anxiety, insomnia, pain, fibromyalgia, and other mood disorders among them. Any one of these can make depression even more painful to live with. And all of them – including the more serious diseases mentioned above – are important reasons to get treated for underlying depression. Talk therapy, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavior therapy, exercise, meditation, and medication have all been shown to be effective, and often it’s a matter of experimenting (with the help of a good mental health professional) to find the right combination. Though it can be hard to believe at first, depression actually is treatable. Keep this in mind, and that successful treatment can look very different for everyone.

This article first appeared Forbes, 23 May 2015.

 

 

 

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