Depression in obese men.

Using the Beck depression inventory (BDI), we studied depression in young, healthy, male subjects who represented a wide range of body weight. Body mass index (BMI), defined as the weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of height (in meters), was used to classify subjects as obese (BMI greater than 31.1, n = 27), overweight (BMI = 27.8-31.1, n = 10) or acceptable weight (BMI less than 27.8, n = 26). BDI scores of 0-9 indicated no depression; scores of 10-15 indicated mild depression. BDI scores from 16 to 63 indicated increasing depression. No group of subjects (obese, overweight or acceptable weight subjects), had mean BDI scores suggesting depression. The mean BDI score for the obese subjects was 5.6 +/- 0.8 (mean +/- s.e.m.), which was significantly higher than the mean BDI scores for both the overweight subjects (2.5 +/- 1.1; P less than 0.04) and the acceptable weight subjects (1.5 +/- 0.3; P less than 0.001). There was a weak positive correlation of BDI with BMI (n = 63, r = 0.404, P less than 0.001). In addition, the obese subjects did form a heterogeneous group with four obese subjects (14.8 percent) having BDI score of 10 or greater. The overweight subjects had one subject (10 percent) with a BDI score of 12. None of the acceptable weight subjects had a BDI score of greater than 5. There was no correlation between waist/hip ratios and BDI scores (n = 37, r = 0.262, P = 0.118). We conclude that mild depression is present in some obese persons even when medically healthy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)