Síndrome metabólica e episódio depressivo: estudo de base populacional

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a disorder with high prevalence in the general population and presents a high rate of comorbidity with depression. In addition, recent studies suggest that deregulation of the biological rhythm as well as specific symptoms of depression, such as anhedonia, might play a central role in this comorbidity. Thus, the aim of the current thesis was to assess the relationship between metabolic syndrome and depressive episode in a community sample of young adults from Pelotas-RS. This is a cross-sectional study corresponding to the second phase of a cohort study. The first paper sought to evaluate the relationship between metabolic syndrome and depressive episode. The results showed that individuals in a depressive episode and with metabolic syndrome had a worse metabolic profile. In addition, they also presented higher disruption in biological rhythm, with higher total BRIAN scores, as well as in sleep, social behavior and eating domains, when compared to individuals with depression, but without MetS. These findings suggest a strong association between MetS and biological rhythm disruption in depressed individuals. The second paper aimed to evaluate differences in the prevalence of MetS and metabolic parameters in young adults with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder in current depressive episode. The results showed that individuals with bipolar disorder and depression, in the current depressive episode, present a high prevalence of MetS in relation to the population sample. In addition, there were no significant differences in metabolic parameters between individuals with depression and bipolar disorder, except for BMI, suggesting that MetS is associated with the depressive episode and not specifically with the diagnosis of mood disorder. In the third paper, it was verified that the prevalence of MetS is higher in depression subjects with anhedonia, when compared to depression subjects without anhedonia, and to population controls. This study also showed that individuals in depression with anhedonia have a worse metabolic profile in relation to glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol than the depression group without anhedonia. Thus, the present study shows an important relationship between MetS and depression, and stresses the importance of designing intervention strategies focused on reducing the high rates of comorbidity among these diseases.