Women – obesity / alcohol / depression link

Study shows interrelated effects of alcohol abuse, depression and obesity

A survey of people aged 24, 27 and 30, carried out by researchers from the University of Washington and published in General Hospital Psychiatry, has found a web of links between depression, obesity and alcohol abuse – but with much more overlap among women than among men. 776 people were tracked by the survey, with nearly half meeting the criteria for one of these conditions at each of these ages.

Among the survey’s findings were that:

• women with an alcohol disorder at age 24 were more than three times as likely to be obese when they were 27– this could be because, according to Carolyn McCarty, the lead author of a new study and a UW research associate professor of paediatrics and psychology, ‘the caloric intake associated with drinking alcohol may increase metabolic processes leading to weight gain. Or there may be an underlying connection to levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, in the reward pathway in the brain because the same pathways reward both food and alcohol intake. It also may be that some people substitute food for alcohol, leading to obesity’;
• women who are obese at 27 were more than twice as likely to be depressed when they were 30 – Dr McCarty commented that this could be because of the importance of body image to women;
• women who are depressed at 27 were at increased risk for alcohol disorders at 30.

However, the results were different for men – indeed, obesity seemed to offer men some protection against later developing depression.

In addition, the study showed that those with higher incomes at age 24 had a lower risk for weight problems later – with McCarty commenting that ‘It costs more to eat well.’

Source: Science Daily, 28 September 2009.

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