Alcohol and Obesity Predict Depression Among Women, Researchers Say

Women who drink to excess and are overweight are more likely to develop depression, and the three disorders are interrelated in other ways, as well, according to a new study of women ages 24-30.

UPI reported Sept. 11 that researcher Carolyn McCarty of the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute and colleagues found that “these disorders, though they’re different in manifestation and symptoms, appear to be related for some groups of women.”

Women who had alcohol-use disorders at age 24, for example, were three times more likely to be obese at age 27, and women who were depressed at age 27 were at higher risk of alcohol disorders at age 30.

The findings were published in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.