Adults living with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs) are at greater risk of developing depression compared to those with no physical health conditions, a recent study has shown.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have found that certain combinations of illnesses can trigger the development of depression, especially cardiometabolic ones like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
MLTC refers to a situation where a person has two or more chronic health conditions, both physical and mental.
Experts are now calling for integrated care models that can treat both mental and physical health.
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In the trial, the team of researchers analysed the health data of more than 142,000 people from the UK Biobank study, all of whom were aged between 37 and 73 and had at least one chronic physical condition. All of the participants had no previous history of depression.
Participants with a complex mix of issues were most likely to go on to develop depression, the research has reported.
Depression was most common among the participants living with either heart disease and type 2 diabetes or chronic lung conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to the findings.
In addition, the results have shown that participants with liver and bowel conditions were also at greater risk of developing depression.
First author Lauren DeLong said: “We saw clear associations between physical health conditions and the development of depression, but this study is only the beginning.
“We hope our findings inspire other researchers to investigate and untangle the links between physical and mental health conditions.”
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Bruce Guthrie, Professor of General Practice at the University of Edinburgh’s Advanced Care Research Centre, added: “Healthcare often treats physical and mental health as completely different things, but this study shows that we need to get better at anticipating and managing depression in people with physical illness.”
Professor Mike Lewis, NIHR’s Scientific Director of Innovation, concluded: “Harnessing the power of data to understand the impact of chronic conditions is going to transform the way we treat patients in the future.
“NIHR’s research in this area is helping to paint a full picture of what patients are dealing with, rather than just focusing on one health condition at a time.”
Read the study in full in the journal Communications Medicine.
