Obese more depressed, depressed more obese

SEATTLE, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Women with depression are more than twice as likely to be obese and obese women are more than twice as likely to be depressed, a U.S. study found.

Lead author Gregory Simon, a psychiatrist and researcher at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, said that depression and obesity likely fuel one another.

"When people gain weight, they're more likely to become depressed and when they get depressed, they have more trouble losing weight," Simon said in a statement.

Researchers interviewed 4,641 female health-plan enrollees, ages 40 to 65, by phone on their height, weight, exercise levels, dietary habits and body image. The women also completed the Patient Health Questionnaire, a measure of depression symptoms.

The study, published in General Hospital Psychiatry, found women with body mass index at or above 30 exercised the least, had the poorest body image and ingested 20 percent more calories than those with lower BMIs.

"The stigma of being overweight could hurt self-esteem, and thus, efforts to lose weight," Simon says. "It's not that these women are clueless, it's that they're hopeless."