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Childhood
Obesity Linked to Depression
Children who are chronically obese may carry the weight
of the world on their shoulders -- or at least feel as if
they do.
A study shows that kids who are substantially overweight
throughout much of their childhood and adolescence have
a higher incidence of depression than those who aren't.
The research, published in the issue of Pediatrics, studied
nearly 1,000 children for a period of eight years to learn
whether being obese had any links to psychological problems.
"The most significant finding was that chronic obesity
is linked to psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents,"
says Sarah Mustillo, study author and a researcher in the
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke
University School of Medicine.
Although media attention is often focused on the weight
of young girls, surprisingly it was young boys who were
at greatest risk for weight-related depression. However,
the study also found that chronically obese boys and girls
were at risk for "oppositional defiant disorder"
-- a behavior problem typified by combative, hostile or
uncooperative behavior toward authority figures.
While the study makes a clear association between chronic
obesity and psychological problems, what it doesn't do is
draw a line of blame from one to the other. According to
Mustillo, researchers don't know for sure what comes first
-- the depression or the obesity.
"If I had to speculate about the connection, I would
propose two possible avenues -- social and neuroendocrine,"
Mustillo says.
First, she says, obesity could influence treatment -- such
as teasing -- from peers that, in turn, courts depression.
Perhaps more important, Mustillo points out that both obesity
and psychological disorders may share a brain chemistry
that is ultimately responsible for both problems.
For childhood obesity expert Dr. Henry Anhalt, the real
value of this study is not just the links to psychological
problems, but the recognition that the cause of obesity
is not the same for all affected.
"What is of enormous importance in this study is the
recognition that obesity is not a clear-cut and simple problem,
that it is not the same for every person," says Anhalt,
director of pediatric endocrinology at Infants and Children's
Hospital of Brooklyn at Maimonides Medical Center in New
York City.
What the study really shows, he says, is how complex a problem
obesity is -- particularly in children -- and the need for
a wide variety of treatment options.
"I think the real breakthroughs in treatment will come
when we fully recognize all the ways in which obesity can
affect an individual patient," Anhalt says.
The new study involved 991 white children from the Great
Smokey Mountains in North Carolina, aged 9 to 16. Each child
was evaluated yearly for eight years for changes in height,
weight, psychiatric status and a condition Mustillo called
"vulnerability towards psychiatric disorder."
The researchers also divided the children into four groups
according to weight specifics: Non-obese (73 percent); chronically
obese -- lasting through childhood and adolescence (15 percent);
obese only as young children (5 percent); and obese only
as adolescents (7 percent).
Since there is no accepted standard of obesity in children,
those classified as such were significantly overweight.
After analyzing all the data, two distinct factors defined
the research, Mustillo says. First was the realization that
childhood obesity in the United States is a greater problem
than anyone thought -- some three to four times more common
than what had been projected nationally by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000.
Second, the researchers learned that children who were chronically
obese had an increased risk for psychiatric disorders --
specifically, depression, which was greater for boys than
girls, and oppositional defiant disorder, the same for both
boys and girls. Children in the other weight categories
did not share the same risks.
Based on her findings, Mustillo offers this advice: "In
dealing with children who are already obese, parents may
do well to emphasize the health aspects as opposed to the
appearance aspects of losing weight ... and both doctors
and parents should encourage, model and support nutritious
eating and higher levels of physical activity."
For more information on depression in children, visit The
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Article Source: HealthDay
Article Author: Colette Bouchez
Net Reference 101
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