Alcohol, obesity and depression abuse seem to go together in many women, revealed the first study of how these three disorders are interrelated over time in young adults.
Men and young women participants had followed since 1985, when they were in fifth grade. The team analyzed the results of interviews conducted when participants were 24, 27 and 30 years to understand the interrelationships between depression, obesity and alcohol abuse.
At age 21, 8 per cent of women and 12 per cent of men had at least two of these three problems. At the time, having more than one of those problems was more common in women but less common in men.
The only relationship observed in the obese men was for 27 years, they were less likely to be depressed at 30. But the 27 depressed women were three times more likely at 30 years to meet the clinical criteria that define alcohol abuse.
Women with alcohol problems at 24 were four times more likely to be obese at age 27, while being obese to 27 doubled the risk of having depression at age 30.
Meanwhile, people of both sexes on low incomes had an increased risk of depression and obesity.
The tendency to have a style for which the person becomes obsessed with playing and negative experiences would be one of the problems attached to alcohol abuse, obesity and depression.
Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksma, a psychologist at Yale, called the “toxic triangle” of “eat, drink and think too much,” they add. She showed that women-and men-with this style are more depressed and more likely to binge drink or food to cope with emotional problems.
There are interventions for the three legs of the toxic triangle, such as exercise, mental training and stress management.
Strategies to treat depression, excessive alcohol consumption and obesity are problems with the “reward system” brain should help people to find alternatives autorrecompensa to food and alcohol.
