Hypercortisolemic depression is associated with the metabolic syndrome in late-life

Abstract

SUMMARYIntroduction-Depression has been hypothesized to be associated with metabolic abnormalities which increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Such a link could be due to increased HPA-axis activity. This study investigates the cross-sectional relationship between depression, urinary cortisol and metabolic syndrome in an older population.

Cortisol and insulin in depression and metabolic syndrome

“…Although this is indeed a potentially interesting mechanism, our data do not provide much evidence for a large effect of hyperinsulinemia. In our study among 867 older persons (Vogelzangs et al, 2007), we showed that hypercortisolemic depression was associated with the metabolic syndrome in an older population. Although we found a weak association between 24-h urinary cortisol and serum glucose in the total sample (adjusted β = 0.08, p = .02), among depressed persons (N=179) cortisol appeared to be associated more strongly with the obesity-related components of the metabolic syndrome such as waist circumference, triglycerides, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol than with serum glucose.…”

Components of the metabolic syndrome and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older people: the Bambuí Cohort Aging Study

“…Several community-based studies have investigated the association between MetS and depressive symptoms in the elderly, 6,8,9,11,22,23 and in most this association was confirmed. 6,11,22,23 However, some studies have not detected an association between MetS and depression.…”

“…6,11,22,23 However, some studies have not detected an association between MetS and depression. 8,9 This contradiction may be explained at least in part by methodological differences, particularly concerning the assessment of depressive symptoms, definition of depression cases, evaluation of each component of the MetS (e.g., objective laboratorial blood assessments or selfreported risk factors).…”

Depression gets old fast: do stress and depression accelerate cell aging?

“…[2,[4][5][6][7][8] Depression is also associated with significantly worse outcomes in a number of medical conditions, and depression is an independent risk factor for early mortality (even after accounting for sociodemographic factors, suicide, and biological and behavioral risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol, and physical illness). [9][10][11][12][13] Various explanations for ''accelerated aging'' in depression have been proposed, such as the ''glucocorticoid cascade'' hypothesis [14,15] and ''allostatic load.''…”