Psychiatric disorders are associated with elevated levels of glucose and triglycerides

April 8, 2024
5:50 pm
Depression

Dr. Sh. Farahimanesh

Depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders are common mental health issues, affecting about one-third of people at some point in their lives. Recent research suggests that problems with how our body processes energy, like sugar and fat, might contribute to these disorders. When our body doesn’t handle sugar and fat well, it can cause inflammation, which is like a response from our body’s defense system. This inflammation can affect our brain, leading to conditions like depression and anxiety. Also, certain substances in our body, like fats and signals from our gut, might make it easier for inflammation to get into our brain, raising the risk of mental health problems.

Scientists have looked into how glucose and fat levels in the body relate to the risk of depression, but the results are mixed. Some studies say higher glucose levels are linked to depression, while others say the opposite. The same goes for fat levels: some studies say high triglycerides are linked to depression, while others say low cholesterol levels are.

These differences might be because of how the studies were done, like not following up for long enough or not having enough people in the study. Also, most studies focused on older people, not younger ones, and they mostly used surveys to find depression, which might not be as accurate as talking to a doctor.

Not much research has been done on how these body markers relate to anxiety and stress disorders.

So, Dr. Charilaos Chourpiliadis, along with colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm,wanted to look into how glucose, fat, and other markers relate to depression, anxiety, and stress disorders in a big study with lots of data over time. They know that these markers can change over time and might be affected by different health issues, including mental health problems. So, They did two different analyses to better understand how these markers relate to these mental health issues over time.

Elevated levels of glucose and triglycerides have been linked to an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders, as reported in the study published online on April 2 in JAMA Network Open.

Dr. Charilaos Chourpiliadis, along with colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, conducted a population-based cohort study. This study involved longitudinal data collection from 211,200 participants in the Apolipoprotein-Related Mortality Risk cohort who underwent occupational health screening. The aim was to investigate whether biomarkers related to carbohydrate, lipid, and apolipoprotein metabolism correlate with the risk of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders.

The study revealed that out of 16,256 individuals monitored over an average follow-up period of 21.0 years, a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders was made. Elevated levels of glucose and triglycerides were linked to a higher subsequent risk for all examined psychiatric disorders (with hazard ratios of 1.30 and 1.15, respectively), while increased levels of high-density lipoprotein were associated with a reduced risk (with a hazard ratio of 0.88). These findings remained consistent across both male and female participants and across all tested disorders.

In the two decades leading up to diagnosis, patients with depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders exhibited higher levels of glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol. Additionally, in the decade preceding diagnosis, elevated levels of apolipoprotein A-I and apolipoprotein B were observed compared to controls.

The authors suggest that these findings provide further support for the relationship between cardiometabolic health and psychiatric disorders. They propose that closer monitoring of individuals with metabolic dysregulations may be warranted for the prevention and early detection of psychiatric disorders.