Depression and Pesticide Exposures in Female Spouses of Licensed Pesticide Applicators in the Agricultural Health Study Cohort

Abstract

Objective-This nested case control study evaluated the association between depression and pesticide exposure among women.Methods-The study population included 29,074 female spouses of private pesticide applicators enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study between 1993-1997. Cases were women who had physician diagnosed depression requiring medication. Lifetime pesticide use was categorized as never mixed/ applied pesticides, as low exposure (up to 225 days), high exposure (>225 days) and a history of diagnosed pesticide poisoning. Conclusion-Pesticide poisoning may contribute to risk of depression. Keywordspesticides; depression; Agricultural Health Study; female farm residents Studies over the past forty years show an association between neurological effects and exposure to organophosphate (OP) insecticides 1-3 . In the past decade, several studies have suggested a possible association between pesticide exposure and depressive symptoms, particularly among cases of acute poisoning 4-7 . Depression associated with a pesticide poisoning may persist for years after the poisoning 4,8 . Some studies have shown long-term effects on mood in the absence of an acute pesticide poisoning 6,9-11 , but others have not 12-14 . Thus reported effects of pesticide exposure on depression are inconsistent, and information on effects from low-dose, long-term exposure is especially meager.The association of depression with pesticide exposure has been demonstrated primarily in studies of men, and the few studies of women have suffered from limited power 4,5,11 . Because the epidemiologic characteristics of depression differ in women and men, and because few spouses were men, male spouses were excluded from the analyses. Spouses who were missing responses to the diagnosed depression question, who reported a previous lead or solvent poisoning 24 or head injury 25 , or who were under 18 years of age were also excluded. A total of 29,074 women were available for analysis after these exclusions.Cases were defined as female spouses of private applicators who responded "yes" to the question "Has a DOCTOR ever told you that you had been diagnosed with depression requiring medication". Controls were female spouses who responded "no". For those responding "yes", age of diagnosis was obtained in 20-year categories.Based on associations reported in the literature on depression, and to control for potential confounding, factors chosen for inclusion in the analyses were age at enrollment, state of residence, education, race, Hispanic ethnicity, cigarette smoking and alcohol use. Visits to a physician during the past 12 months was also considered because frequent visits to a physician may increase the probability of being diagnosed with depression (26). Race was dichotomized into white and non-white with whites being the reference group. Education was categorized as whether or not the respondent finished high school, age into four groups (less than 40 years, 40 to 49 years, 50 to 59 years and greater than 59 years, with those under 40 as th...

Anxiety and depression following cumulative low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides

“…Indeed, as depression is often reported in acutely exposed individuals (for recent reviews see Freire and Koifman [2013] and Stallones and Beseler [2016]) it may be that only higher levels of exposure are associated with clinically significant depressive symptoms; a notion that gains some support from the work of Beseler and colleagues who found pesticide poisoning is more strongly associated with depression than lower levels of exposure (Beseler et al, 2006;. In contrast, anxiety (which has received markedly less attention in the literature) may be associated with lowlevel exposure to OPs.…”

“…This association appears strongest in individuals who report previous instances of acute poisonings Beseler et al 2006;. However, the impact of long-term low-level exposure to OPs (in doses below that causing acute toxicity) on human health is less clear.…”

“…An exception is the work of Stallones and Beseler and colleagues (Stallones and Beseler, 2002a;2002b;Beseler et al, 2006; in which the influence of demographic factors such as age, gender, marital status, alcohol use, health status and financial difficulties (known risk factors for depression) were explored in addition to pesticide exposure. They found higher rates of depression in individuals with a history of pesticide poisoning, even after adjustments were made for other risk factors.…”

A review of pesticide exposure and cancer incidence in the agricultural health study cohort

“…Studies of physical injury (Sprince et al 2002(Sprince et al , 2003a(Sprince et al , 2003b(Sprince et al , 2003c(Sprince et al , 2007, mortality (Blair et al , 2005bLee et al 2007a), respiratory disorders (Hoppin et al 2002aValcin et al 2007), neurologic symptoms , retinal degeneration (Kamel et al 2000;Kirrane et al 2005), diabetes (Montgomery et al 2008;Saldana et al 2007), menstrual cycle characteristics (Farr et al 2004(Farr et al , 2006, hearing loss (Crawford et al 2008), Parkinson's disease (Kamel et al 2007b), changes in serum androgen levels (Martin et al 2002), arthritis (De Roos et al 2005b), depression (Beseler et al 2006(Beseler et al , 2008, and immune responses have also been conducted as part of the AHS but are not discussed in this review.…”

Increased Beck Depression Inventory Score among Coffee Growers Pesticide Applicators

“…Curiously, the probability for herbicides exposure was so higher than for insecticides and higher than others classes [22].…”