Obesity increases risk of mental disorders

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - People suffering from obesity are at a significantly greater risk of also developing mental disorders. This applies to all age groups, whereby women are more at risk than men for most diseases, as a recent study by the Medical University of Vienna and the Complexity Science Hub Vienna shows. The results were published in the specialist journal "Translational Psychiatry". In the context of this study, the research team analysed a population-based dataset of all inpatient hospitalisations in Austria from 1997 to 2014 in order to determine the relative risks of concomitant diseases in obesity and to identify statistically significant gender differences. Consequently, it became evident that an obesity diagnosis significantly increases the probability of a broad spectrum of mental disorders in all age groups - including depression, nicotine addiction, psychosis, anxiety, eating and personality disorders. "From a clinical point of view, these results emphasise the need to raise awareness of psychiatric diagnoses in obese patients and, if necessary, to consult specialists at an early stage of diagnosis," explains study leader Michael Leutner from the Department of Internal Medicine II at MedUni Vienna. Obesity as the first diagnosis - "In order to find out which illness typically appeared prior and subsequently to the obesity diagnosis, we had to develop a new method.