TY - JOUR

T1 - Surrogate markers of visceral fat and response to anti-depressive treatment in patients with major depressive disorder

T2 - a prospective exploratory analysis

AU - Tønning, Morten

AU - Petersen, Dorthe

AU - Steglich-Petersen, Marie

AU - Csillag, Claudio

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Background: Body mass index (BMI) and body weight have been shown to be associated to treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder, but this relationship is not clear. Visceral fat might be an underlying mechanism explaining this relationship. Aims: The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate whether visceral fat, as measured by hip-to-waist ratio and waist circumference, affects treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder in patients attending a hospital psychiatric care unit in Denmark. Methods: The study was conducted as an observational prospective study including 33 patients with major depressive disorder. Assessments were made at enrolment and after 8 weeks. Primary variables were hip-to-waist ratio and waist circumference. Outcome were remission or response of depressive symptoms measured with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D17) interviews and HAM-D6 self-rating questionnaires. Results: No differences were found in outcome between groups of patients with high vs low visceral fat in this population. Conclusions: The lack of association was evident for all surrogate markers of visceral fat, and suggests that visceral fat has no impact on outcomes of depressive symptoms. However, study limitations might have contributed to this lack of association, especially sample size and considerable variations on multiple parameters including treatment received during the 8 weeks of follow-up.

AB - Background: Body mass index (BMI) and body weight have been shown to be associated to treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder, but this relationship is not clear. Visceral fat might be an underlying mechanism explaining this relationship. Aims: The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate whether visceral fat, as measured by hip-to-waist ratio and waist circumference, affects treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder in patients attending a hospital psychiatric care unit in Denmark. Methods: The study was conducted as an observational prospective study including 33 patients with major depressive disorder. Assessments were made at enrolment and after 8 weeks. Primary variables were hip-to-waist ratio and waist circumference. Outcome were remission or response of depressive symptoms measured with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D17) interviews and HAM-D6 self-rating questionnaires. Results: No differences were found in outcome between groups of patients with high vs low visceral fat in this population. Conclusions: The lack of association was evident for all surrogate markers of visceral fat, and suggests that visceral fat has no impact on outcomes of depressive symptoms. However, study limitations might have contributed to this lack of association, especially sample size and considerable variations on multiple parameters including treatment received during the 8 weeks of follow-up.

KW - depression

KW - obesity

KW - outcome

KW - Visceral fat

U2 - 10.1080/08039488.2016.1238508

DO - 10.1080/08039488.2016.1238508

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27701935

AN - SCOPUS:84990226992

VL - 71

SP - 110

EP - 114

JO - Nordisk Psykiatrisk Tidsskrift

JF - Nordisk Psykiatrisk Tidsskrift

SN - 0803-9496

IS - 2

ER -