When was the last time you checked in with your mental well-being? Evaluating your emotional health, stress levels, and mood can help gauge which areas in your life are taking up the most headspace—and, conversely, where you can make some improvements. Plus, it could also benefit your physical health, as new research suggests that certain mental health conditions, like depression, can increase your risk of developing serious physical health issues.
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Research indicates that adults with depression are more susceptible to physical ailments.
A new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine found that adults with depression have a higher risk than their peers of developing physical health problems. According to the study’s results, these conditions present themselves 30 percent faster in adults with depression. As a result, researchers are calling for better integrated mental and physical healthcare services.
"In the most comprehensive study to date on this topic, to our knowledge, we identified a higher rate of accrual for comorbid physical health problems in people with a history of depression compared to those without. Our findings highlight that depression should be viewed as a 'whole body' condition, as well as the importance of integrated approaches to managing both mental and physical health outcomes," wrote the study’s authors.
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Depression can increase your risk of chronic joint pain, acid reflux, and hypertension.
Per the findings, adults with depression have a 30 percent increased risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure), osteoarthritis (chronic joint pain), and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) when compared to adults without depression. Heart disease and diabetes are also risk factors.
To arrive at this conclusion, researchers analyzed 172,556 UK Biobank profiles, including self-reported data, primary care charts, hospital admission, cancer registry, and death records. Participants ranged from 40 to 71 years old, and 17. 8 percent (30,770 individuals) had a history of depression. Assessments were conducted at baseline and follow-up meetings for a mean of 6.9 years.
"At the start of the study, people without a previous diagnosis of depression had an average of two long-term physical health conditions, whilst people with a previous diagnosis of depression had an average of three such conditions," wrote the authors. "Compared to those without depression, participants with depression had more physical conditions at baseline and accrued additional physical conditions at a faster rate."
Of the 69 physical conditions identified, chronic joint pain, acid reflux, and hypertension were the most common.
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The takeaway:
This study serves as a friendly reminder that looking after your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health. Moreover, better systems are needed to tackle both mental and physical health conditions simultaneously.
"People who’ve experienced depression are more likely to develop long-term physical health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes; however, existing healthcare systems are designed to treat individual conditions, instead of individual people with multiple conditions," said the authors in a press release via NeuroscienceNews.com. "We need healthcare services to take an integrated approach to caring for people who have both depression and long-term physical health conditions."
