A new study has found a link between depression and reduced bone mass in pre-menopausal women.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have just released a study that has found that women who suffer from even mild depression have less bone mass than women who are not depressed. Thin bones are a key factor in the development of osteoporosis.
The study was published in the November 26 issue of the “Archives of Internal Medicine.”
Researchers found that the hip bones of 17 percent of the depressed women who participated in the study were significantly thinner than those of their non-depressed counterparts. In women who develop osteoporosis, the hips are particularly vulnerable; fractures of the hip are a leading cause of disability, even death, among older women. Twenty percent of the depressed women in the study—compared to only 9 percent of those who were not depressed—had decreased bone mass in their lower spines as well.
"Depression generally isn't on clinicians' radar screens as a major risk factor for osteoporosis, particularly for premenopausal women. It should be," said Giovanni Cizza, MD, PhD, MHSc, who lead the research team.
Risk to Young Women and Girls
The NIH study, which included participants as young as 21 years old up to 49 years old, found that the deleterious effects of depression on bones is happening not just to older women—who generally are more at risk for developing osteoporosis. Even the youngest among the study participants were affected.
This finding is particularly disconcerting against other research conducted by the NIMH that found that girls between the ages of 11 and 13 are more likely to suffer from depression than boys, and by age 15, girls are twice as likely as boys to have suffered at least one major depressive episode.
Depression stands out in the NIH study as the single factor that has this effect, even when compared to other known risk factors in this cohort, including smoking, less physical activity, and low levels of calcium intake.
Even more alarming, the severity of a woman’s depression did not seem to play a significant role in relation to her increased bone loss, say the NIH researchers. While each of the depressed women who participated had recently suffered a depressive episode, even women with mild to moderate depression were losing bone at a faster rate than those who were not depressed.
Osteoporosis: A Disease with a Long History
Thinning bones is a fact of growing older—not even geriatric, just older than adolescence, when bone formation peaks. Following that high point, bones start to thin. Smoking, having an eating disorder, and not getting enough calcium all help quicken the pace of bone loss. Following menopause, with the loss of estrogen, the pace for women speeds up even faster, leading to osteoporosis. The NIH estimates that about 20 percent of American women have the disease.
However, because the bone loss happens at a gradual pace through life anyway, and the effects of the disease of osteoporosis aren’t seen, usually, until a woman suffers a fracture, many women do not know they are affected.
A Major Cause of Disability
This recent study enters a growing body of research showing the enormous impact of depression on health. Researchers from the World Health Organization, in a study published in the Lancet in September 2007, assert that depression alone may be the world’s single worst malady, even after illnesses like heart disease and other chronic conditions are considered. People who suffer heart disease, diabetes and other debilitating illnesses also fare much worse if they also suffer from depression, the study found.
