From the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics press release via AlphaGalileo:
A group of Dutch investigators has published a study in one of the last issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics examined the influence of specific somatic diseases on the 2-year course of depressive and anxiety disorders.
Investigators used data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, an ongoing cohort study including 2,981 participants aged 18–65 years. At baseline, depressive (major depressive disorder, dysthymia) and anxiety disorders (panic disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder) were assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Of the eligible participants with a current 6-month depressive or anxiety diagnosis, 1,209 participated in the 2-year follow-up assessment and were included in the study.
Chronic somatic diseases were self-reported diseases monitored by a healthcare professional and/or treated with medication. To assess the course of depressive and anxiety disorders investigators used (a) the psychiatric status after 2 years based on the presence of CIDI DSM-IV diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorder (6-month recency) and (b) the clinical course trajectory of the psychiatric disorder based on the Life Chart Inventory (LCI).
Based on both the depressive and anxiety symptoms over time, the investigators discerned three clinical course trajectories: (a) early sustained remission (within 6 months), (b) late sustained remission (after 6 months) and (c) remission with recurrence of symptoms (at least 3 months symptom-free interval) or a chronic course (symptoms during the entire follow-up). In age-, sex- and education-adjusted analyses, only the musculoskeletal disease category was significantly associated with still having a depressive and/or anxiety disorder at 2-year follow up (OR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.29–3.01).
Results for medication-confirmed disease categories were very similar to self-reported data results. For specific somatic diseases within categories we found that only osteoarthritis showed a significant association with a persistent mental disorder (OR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.05–2.71). The OR for diabetes was tentative but non significant (OR = 1.81; 95% CI = 0.87–3.76).
The results for the association between somatic disease categories and the three clinical course trajectories over 2 years showed that the cardiometabolic disease category was associated with having a recurrent or chronic course (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.02–2.31). This association was mainly driven by diabetes (OR = 2.77; 95% CI = 1.15–6.66). In sum, the results of this longitudinal study indicate that musculoskeletal disease and diabetes influenced the course of depression and anxiety negatively, whereas other specific somatic diseases did not. Consequences of these findings for future treatment urgently deserve further study.