People with depression are more likely to be overweight. What is the relationship between these diseases? A study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry has shown that depression modifies the effect of the "obesity gene" on an individual's body mass index.
The researchers, from the University of Granada, selected both individuals diagnosed with recurrent depression and people without any type of mental illness and studied the relationship between different forms of the FTO gene (obesity gene) with the body mass index of the patients. The results show how people with depression are more likely to have a high body mass index, and this effect is closely related to the type of polymorphisms of that gene.
Both depression and obesity are very common diseases and those who suffer from them also have a greater risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. Knowing the variants of the FTO gene that cause weight gain can be very useful in identifying individuals with depression who are more likely to be overweight, and therefore taking measures to avoid it.
