Childhood Depression May Lead to Heart Disease by Teen Years

Children with depression are more likely to be obese, smoke and be inactive, and can show the effects of heart disease as early as their teen years, according to a newly published study by University of South Florida Associate Professor of Psychology Jonathan Rottenberg.

The research, by Rottenberg and his colleagues at Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh, suggests that depression may increase the risk of heart problems later in life. The researchers also observed higher rates of heart disease in the parents of adolescents that had been depressed as children. The research is published online in Psychosomatic Medicine and will be included in the medical journal’s February 2014 issue.

“Given that the parents in this sample were relatively young, we were quite surprised to find that the parents of the affected adolescents were reporting a history of heart attacks and other serious events,” Rottenberg explained.

Cardiologists and mental health professionals have long known a link exists between depression and heart disease. Depressed adults are more likely to suffer a heart attack, and if they do have a heart attack, it’s more likely to be fatal.

However it was unclear when the association between clinical depression and cardiac risk develops, or how early in life the association can be detected. These findings suggest improved prevention and treatment of childhood depression could reduce adult cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women- accounting for one in every four deaths in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the study, Rottenberg and his colleagues followed up on Hungarian children who had participated in a 2004 study of the genetics of depression. The researchers compared heart disease risk factors - such as smoking, obesity, physical activity level, and parental history - across three categories of adolescents.

The Association Between Major Depressive Disorder in Childhood and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Adolescence Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide and accounts for approximately 30% of all deaths. Depression in adults has been identified as an independent risk factor both for incident coronary heart disease and for cardiac events among patients with established heart disease. Repeated exposure to major depression has been associated with measures of preclinical CHD, such as coronary artery calcification both cross sectionally and longitudinally. Moreover, well-established risk factors for CVD tend to be more common and more severe in depressed than in nondepressed adults: depressed adults are more likely to smoke, have a higher body mass index (BMI) and be more sedentary than their nondepressed counterparts.

Critically, because research linking depression to CVD risk factors has typically involved middle-aged and older adults, it is unclear when in the life course clinical depression first becomes associated with traditional risk factors for CVD. Most research linking depression to established CVD risk factors has involved middle-aged and older adults. There are some indications that this association may be detectable with childhood or adolescent samples, although most studies have examined a single CVD risk factor in isolation. The clearest evidence for childhood or adolescent depression contributing to future elevation on a CVD risk factor is obesity.