Objective
Depression in adults is associated with
risk factors for
cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is unclear, however, when the association between clinical
depression and cardiac
risk factors develops or how early in life this association can be detected.
Methods
In an ongoing study of pediatric
depression, we compared CVD
risk factors including smoking, obesity, physical activity level, sedentary behavior, and parental history of CVD across three samples of adolescents: probands with established histories of childhood-onset major depressive disorder (
n = 210), never-depressed siblings of probands (
n = 195), and controls with no history of any major psychiatric disorder (
n = 161).
Results
When assessed during
adolescence, 85% of the probands were not in a major depressive episode. Nevertheless, at that assessment, probands had a higher prevalence of regular smoking (odds ratio [OR] = 12.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.36–36.12) and were less physically active than controls (OR = 0.59, CI = 0.43–0.81) and siblings (OR = 0.70, CI = 0.52–0.94) and had a higher rate of obesity than did controls (OR = 3.67, CI = 1.42–9.52). Parents of probands reported high rates of CVD (significantly higher than did parents of controls), including myocardial infarction and CVD-related hospitalization (ORs = 1.62–4.36, CIs = 1.03–15.40). Differences in CVD
risk factors between probands and controls were independent of parental CVD.
Conclusions
Major
depression in childhood is associated with an unfavorable CVD risk profile in
adolescence, and risks for pediatric
depression and CVD may coincide in families. Effective prevention and treatment of childhood
depression may be a means to reduce the incidence of adult CVD.
