Higher Glucose, Triglycerides, Cholesterol

The findings stem from longitudinal data on 211,200 adults (58% men) enrolled in the Apolipoprotein-Related Mortality Risk cohort.

The researchers examined whether the blood biomarkers of carbohydrate, lipid, and apolipoprotein metabolism are associated with the risk for depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders. Participants had a mean age of 42 years at the first biomarker blood draw.

During a mean follow-up of 21 years, 16,256 individuals were diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders.

Compared with low or normal levels, high levels of glucose (hazard ratio [HR], 1.30) and triglycerides (HR, 1.15) were associated with a higher risk for depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders, whereas high levels of HDL (HR, 0.88) were associated with reduced risk.

The results were consistent when examining depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders separately and were comparable for men and women.

The researchers also performed nested case-control analyses within the cohort, including all incident cases of depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders, and up to 10 matched controls per individual case.

Compared with controls, patients with depression, anxiety, or stress-related disorders had consistently higher levels of glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol during the two decades preceding diagnosis, as well as higher levels of apolipoprotein A-I and apolipoprotein B during the 10 years preceding diagnosis.

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