Association of body mass index with depression and alexithymia

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Association between body mass index (BMI) and mental disorders had long been investigated. Recent researches declare a relation between obesity and depressed mood as well as clinical depression. On the other hand mental disorders such as alexithymia are also found to be correlated with an increased risk of obesity. Therefore we aimed to evaluate depression and alexithymia together among normal, overweight and obese adults in order to assess what kind of an association is there between BMI, depression and alexithymia. Additionally we investigated whether there was a relationship between psychosomatic disorders and alexithymia. METHOD: We enrolled 100 adults, aged between 18 to 67 from Department of Endocrinology out-patient clinic whom had normal levels of TSH, fT3 and fT4 thyroid hormones and formed 3 groups according to their Body Mass Index (BMI). Individuals who had had BMI between 18.5-24.99 formed the normal, BMI between 25-29.99 formed the overweight and BMI 30 and above formed the obese groups. All three groups were evaluated by Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) for clinical diagnosis and also given Toronto Alexithymia Scale 26 item (TAS-26) as well as Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). RESULTS: There was a positive relation between BMI and current depressive episode and this finding was stronger in women. There was no such relation with lifelong depression. TAS-26 total and subscale scores revealed no difference between three groups. As BDI total scores got higher TAS-26 scores were higher. Hence there was a strong positive relation between depression and alexithymia. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that higher BMI increases current depressive episode. No association is found between BMI and lifelong depression. Depression and depression severity are strongly associated with alexithymia. Contradictive with literature, alexithymia and its severity are not found to be related with BMI. Following overweight and obese indviduals is important to offset the adverse outcomes of depression.