Depression and eating disorders

Abstract

Both depressive disorders and eating disorders are multidimensional and heterogeneous disorders. This paper examines the nature of their relationship by reviewing clinical descriptive, family‐genetic, treatment, and biological studies that relate to the issue. The studies confirm the prominence of depressive symptoms and depressive disorders in eating disorders. Other psychiatric syndromes which occur with less frequency, such as anxiety disorders and obsessive‐compulsive disorders in anorexia nervosa, or personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse in bulimia nervosa, also play an important role in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Since few studies have controlled for starvation‐induced physical, endocrine, or psychological changes which mimic the symptoms considered diagnostic for depression, further research will be needed. The evidence for a shared etiology is not compelling for anorexia nervosa and is at most suggestive for bulimia nervosa. Since in contemporary cases dieting‐induced weight loss is the principal trigger, women with self‐critical or depressive features will be disproportionately recruited into eating disorders. The model that fits the data best would accommodate a relationship between eating disorders and the full spectrum of depressive disorders from no depression to severe depression, with somewhat higher rates of depression in bulimic anorectic and bulimia nervosa patients than in restricting anorexia nervosa patients, but the model would admit a specific pathophysiology and psychopathology in each eating disorder. Depression and Anxiety, Volume 8, Supplement 1:96–104, 1998.© 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Eating Disorders and Major Depression: Role of Anger and Personality

“…Moreover, patients with ED were reported to suffer from a wide spectrum of depressive symptoms [42]. Specific characteristics of MD and such a common depressive symptomatology even not meeting MD full criteria highlight the importance of considering also these psychopathological aspects in assessment, monitoring, and treatment of these disorders.…”

Increase in body weight after pramipexole treatment in Parkinson's disease

“…A significant improvement in mood was observed after pramipexole, despite that no patient was considered clinically depressed at any point in the study. Mental depression is associated with loss of food intake and weight loss,13 and antidepressant treatment (anticholinergic, serotoninergic, and noradrenergic drugs) causes a variable extent of weight gain 14. During clinical trials, it has been shown that pramipexole has mood‐stabilizing or ‐elevating effects 15.…”

Characterizing concerns about post-cessation weight gain: results from a national survey of women smokers

“…Elevated depression levels in women with disordered eating patterns have been reported elsewhere (Casper, 1998). On the other hand, clinical depression is typically manifested by loss of appetite, though atypical depression is characterized by vegetative symptoms that include increased appetite and weight (Davidson, Miller, Turnbull, & Sullivan, 1982).…”