Metabolic syndrome common among patients with major depressive disorder associated with depression severity: Study

A new study published in the journal of Cureus showed that metabolic syndrome (MetS) was present in roughly 28% of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients who had not yet received therapy.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects an estimated 280 million people worldwide and is a primary cause of disability, with the WHO projecting that it will become the most common mental health burden by 2030. Emerging data supports a bidirectional association between MDD and metabolic syndrome (MetS), which includes low HDL-C, high blood pressure, raised fasting glucose, high triglycerides, and a larger waist circumference. This study was set to look at the incidence of MetS and its components in untreated MDD patients at a tertiary care hospital, as well as its association to depression severity. Understanding this relationship is critical since MetS in MDD patients raises cardiovascular risk and impairs long-term results.

This cross-sectional study was carried out from January 2023 to August 2024 at the Department of Psychiatry, Lahore General Hospital, Pakistan. Non-probability sequential sampling was used to enroll 290 untreated MDD patients. Diagnoses were made using DSM-5 criteria, and depression severity was assessed using the HAM-D-17 scale.

The NCEP ATP III criteria were used to identify metabolic syndrome (MetS), and biochemical and anthropometric data were collected using established procedures. Pearson correlation was used to examine the relationship between HAM-D scores and metabolic indicators, whereas binary logistic regression was used to identify MetS predictors after controlling for age, gender, waist circumference, triglycerides, and HAM-D score. Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05.

The average age of the 290 patients was 37.39 ± 10.78 years; 109 (37.6%) were men and 181 (62.4%) were women. Of the patients, 81 (27.9%) had MetS. Of them, 102 (35.2%) had central obesity, 104 (35.7%) had hypertension, 89 (30.7%) had hypertriglyceridemia, 88 (30.3%) had impaired fasting glucose, and 42 (14.5%) had low HDL-C.

Of the subjects, 193 (66.6%) had at least one metabolic anomaly identified. The patients with MetS had considerably higher mean HAM-D scores than those without the condition. Depression ratings were greater in patients with central obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and impaired fasting glucose. For low HDL-C, no discernible change was found.

All MetS components, with the exception of HDL-C, showed significant correlations with the degree of depression, according to chi-square analysis. Overall, to lower cardiovascular risk and enhance overall clinical outcomes, the results of this study emphasized the significance of frequent metabolic screening and integrated treatment methods for people with depression.

Source:

Faizan, A. Y. W., Faizan, S., Ilyas, S., Mudassar, H., Khalid, H., Naseer, S., Naeem, I., Haider, M. Z., Jamil, M. I., & Ahmed, A. (2025). Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components in patients with major depressive disorder. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.83066