Children with History of Depression at Risk for Heart Disease at Adolescence

Any history of depression at childhood increases the risk of heart disease in adolescence, a new study says.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine found that the risk factors for heart disease like smoking, obesity and a sedentary life are more common among teens who experienced depression as kids. These risk factors remained the same at adolescence, even though the child completely recovered from depression.

Depression is an outcome of chemical changes in the brain caused by stress or hormonal changes. According to the American Family Physician (AAFP), nearly 2 percent of pre-pubertal children in the U.S. are affected by depression. Treating this condition early is crucial, as untreated depression can lead to self-destructive behavior and suicide.

To analyze the link, Robert M. Carney and colleagues looked at more than 200 children who were clinically diagnosed with depression.  All the children were aged 9. Researchers also included 195 siblings of the children with depression and 161 children without depression.

At age 16, only 15 percent of the 200 children had depression. However, a significant number of the participants (about 22 percent) were obese, compared to their siblings (17 percent) or the control group (11 percent).

The revelation comes at a time when childhood obesity has more than tripled in the United States over the past 30 years.  According to the American Obesity Association, about 30.4 percent of teenagers are overweight and 15.5 percent of them are obese. 

Smoking rates were also higher among teens with a history of depression as compared to others.

"A third of those who were depressed as children had become daily smokers, compared to 13 percent of their nondepressed siblings and only 2.5 percent of the control group," Carney said in a news release.

Each year in the country, over 393,000 Americans die due to smoking-related diseases. According to the American Lung Association, cigarette smoke contains more than 4,800 chemicals, including 69 that cause cancer. According to them, a majority of Americans (70 percent) starts smoking at the age of 18.

Apart from that, regarding physical activity, these adolescents were far behind their siblings and the control group.

The results showed a strong link between any incidence of depression at childhood and cardiac risk factors during teenage years.

"Depression seems to come first," Carney explained. "It's playing an important, if not a causal, role. There may be some related genetic influences that give rise to both depression and to heart disease, or at least to these types of cardiac risk behaviors, but more study will be required before we can draw any firm conclusions about that."

The findings of the study were presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Miami.