MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, School of Life Course & Population Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King's College London, London, UK.
Psychol Med. 2024 Feb;54(3):527-538. doi: 10.1017/S0033291723002155. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
The association between weight and depressive symptoms is well established, but the direction of effects remains unclear. Most studies rely on body mass index (BMI) as the sole weight indicator, with few examining the aetiology of the association between weight indicators and depressive symptoms.
We analysed data from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and UK Adult Twin Registry (TwinsUK) (7658 and 2775 twin pairs, respectively). A phenotypic cross-lagged panel model assessed the directionality between BMI and depressive symptoms at ages 12, 16, and 21 years in TEDS. Bivariate correlations tested the phenotypic association between a range of weight indicators and depressive symptoms in TwinsUK. In both samples, structural equation modelling of twin data investigated genetic and environmental influences between weight indicators and depression. Sensitivity analyses included two-wave phenotypic cross-lagged panel models and the exclusion of those with a BMI <18.5.
Within TEDS, the relationship between BMI and depression was bidirectional between ages 12 and 16 with a stronger influence of earlier BMI on later depression. The associations were unidirectional thereafter with depression at 16 influencing BMI at 21. Small genetic correlations were found between BMI and depression at ages 16 and 21, but not at 12. Within TwinsUK, depression was weakly correlated with weight indicators; therefore, it was not possible to generate precise estimates of genetic or environmental correlations.
The directionality of the relationship between BMI and depression appears to be developmentally sensitive. Further research with larger genetically informative samples is needed to estimate the aetiological influence on these associations.
体重与抑郁症状之间的关联已得到充分证实，但作用方向仍不清楚。大多数研究依赖于身体质量指数（BMI）作为唯一的体重指标，很少有研究探讨体重指标与抑郁症状之间关联的病因。
我们分析了来自双胞胎早期发展研究（TEDS）和英国成人双胞胎登记处（TwinsUK）的数据（分别为 7658 对和 2775 对双胞胎）。在 TEDS 中，采用表型交叉滞后面板模型评估了 12、16 和 21 岁时 BMI 和抑郁症状之间的方向性。在 TwinsUK 中，双变量相关性测试了一系列体重指标与抑郁症状之间的表型关联。在这两个样本中，使用双胞胎数据的结构方程模型研究了体重指标和抑郁之间的遗传和环境影响。敏感性分析包括两波表型交叉滞后面板模型以及排除 BMI<18.5 的个体。
在 TEDS 中，BMI 和抑郁之间的关系在 12 岁至 16 岁之间是双向的，早期 BMI 对后期抑郁的影响更大。此后，这种关联是单向的，16 岁时的抑郁会影响 21 岁时的 BMI。在 16 岁和 21 岁时，BMI 和抑郁之间存在较小的遗传相关性，但在 12 岁时则没有。在 TwinsUK 中，抑郁与体重指标呈弱相关；因此，无法精确估计遗传或环境相关性。
BMI 和抑郁之间关系的方向性似乎对发育具有敏感性。需要进一步研究具有更大遗传信息量的样本，以估计这些关联的病因影响。
