Drinking, Weight, Depression Linked in Young Women:
Study
Reported
September 17, 2009
THURSDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) -- In women under age 30, drinking to
excess, overeating and depression may all be tied together, according to new
research.
A study in the September/October issue of General Hospital Psychiatry found that
women with alcohol abuse issues at age 24 had three times the risk of obesity by
age 27. And women who were obese at 27, the researchers found, were twice as
likely to be depressed by the time they turned 30.
"When you look across time, alcohol use and obesity predicted later depression.
The big picture here is that these disorders, though they're different in
manifestation and symptoms, appear to be related for some groups of women," lead
study author Carolyn McCarty, a research associate professor at the University
of Washington and Seattle Children's Research Institute, said in a news release
issued by Health Behavior News Service.
Men in the same age groups did not have the same increased risks, according to
the study. How women respond to stress, as well as biological differences in the
brain, may play a role in the gender difference, McCarty said
Dr. Gregory Simon, a psychiatrist at the Group Health Center for Health Studies
in Seattle who was not involved in the study, noted that many depressed people
tend to be overweight. "From a clinical or health care provider perspective,
when you think about what to do about one of these problems, you have to think
about what to do about the other," he said in the same news release.
Source : U.S.News & World Report |
