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Medical disorders in people with recurrent depression

Medical Research Council, Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London

Ania Korszun, PhD, MRCPsych

Department of Psychiatry, St Bartholomew’s and Royal London Medical School, London

Michael J. Owen, PhD, FRCPsych and Nick Craddock, PhD, FRCPsych, MRCPsych

Department of Psychological Medicine, Wales School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff

Lisa Jones, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham

Ian Jones, PhD, MRCPsych

Department of Psychological Medicine, Wales School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff

Jo Gray, BSc, Richard J. Williamson, PhD and Peter McGuffin, PhD, FRCP, FRCPsych

Medical Research Council, Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Correspondence: Dr Anne Farmer, Medical Research Council, Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Email: a.farmer{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background

Few studies have examined the rates of physical disorders in those with recurrent depression.

Aims

To examine self-reported physical disorders in people with recurrent depression compared with a psychiatrically healthy control group.

Method

As part of a genetic case–control association study, 1546 participants with recurrent depression and 884 controls were interviewed about lifetime ever treatment for 16 different physical health disorders.

Results

The cases group had a significantly higher frequency of 14 physical disorders and more obesity than the control group. After controlling for age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and multiple testing, those in the cases group had significantly higher rates of gastric ulcer, rhinitis/hay fever, osteoarthritis, thyroid disease, hypertension and asthma.

Conclusions

People with recurrent depression show high rates of many common physical disorders. Although this can be partly explained by BMI, shared aetiological pathways such as dysfunction of the hypothalamic–pituitary axis may have a role.

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