14 DAY TRIAL // A new research concluded that for many women dealing with depression and obesity, improving their mood is linked to them loosing weight.
The study is actually based on past surveys that proved that having a body mass index of 30 or more, rises one's risk of depression by 50 to 150 percent.
Lead author Gregory Simon, MD, of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle said that he “ expects that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions.”
The researchers assessed 203 women aged 40 to 65 years, with an average BMI of 38.3 (people with a BMI of 30 or more are considered obese), measuring their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
Then the women were separated into two treatment groups – one focusing on losing weight and the other focusing on both weight loss and treating depression.
The interventions included up to 26 group sessions over a period of 12 months, with follow-ups at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The scientists concluded that the most significant changes occurred in the first 6 months, and remained stable afterwards, ScienceDaily reports.
At six months, among women who were helped to lose weight and treat their depression, 38 percent of those who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, lost at least 5 percent of their body weight.
In the group treated for obesity only, only 21 percent of women lost the same amount, but there was no change in the depression score.
“Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity.
“We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which,” added Simon.
Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, MD, of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that “most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression.
“This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”
The results of the study appear in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.