Depression and Osteoporosis Connection
November 10, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Women who are diagnosed with clinical depression may have a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, say researchers in Israel.
There has been a suspicion that there is a connection between depression and osteoporosis, but studies have been small. To address this, researchers from Hebrew University researchers looked at data from all studies analyzed them to see what they could find. The results of their meta-analysis were gathered from 23 studies, which studied 2,327 people with depression and 21,141 without depression.
According to this news release, Connection between depression and osteoporosis detailed by Hebrew University researchers, the connection is clear.
[D]epressed individuals have a substantially lower bone density than non-depressed people and that depression is associated with a markedly elevated activity of cells that breakdown bone (osteoclasts).
[The researchers] found that the association between depression and bone loss was stronger in women than men, especially young women before the end of their monthly period. This connection was especially strong in women with clinical depression diagnosed by a psychiatrist, but not in community studies, in which women subjectively identified themselves as being depressed using self-rating questionnaires.
Osteoporosis is a devastating disease. It affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over 50, throughout the world.
The authors of the study say that women and men who are diagnosed as clinically depressed should be monitored for osteoporosis. What would be interesting would be to know if these people take antidepressants and if this may affect the development of osteoporosis.
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Image: iStock.com
This is quite intriguing, as there is often a connection between the mental and physical health of individuals affected by disease. Research has shown a relationship between depression and cancer mortality; emotion and weight gain, but I had never considered that depression and osteoporosis would be related. Could this be due to hormonal fluctuations in depressed persons? Activity level? Depressed people maybe less concerned about the overall health and thus not eat properly or work out regularly.
As a scientist I’m very curious to know more about this and if studies maybe done to determine whether an improvement in mood may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
-healthy_blogging