Relationship between depression and lipid metabolism in the elderly with hypertension

Abstract

In order to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and the lipid metabolism in the elderly with hypertension, we recruited 311 outpatients aged 65 or older with hypertension and defined depression as patients with 6 or more symptoms on Geriatric Depression Scale short form. We further classified depressed patients into three groups: mild depressed with 6-7 symptoms, moderate depressed with 8-10 symptoms and severe depressed with 11 or more symptoms. Serum total cholesterol, serum HDL cholesterol and serum LDL cholesterol levels were significantly higher in female depressed patients than those in nondepressed patients (TC, 194.6 +/- 30.1 vs 208.0 +/- 32.8 p < 0.01; HDL, 67.3 +/- 19.3 vs 72.3 +/- 16.2 p < 0.01; LDL, 107.6 +/- 26.5 vs 116.0 +/- 29.1 p < 0.05). In male patients, serum lipids were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms but depressed patients were significantly older than nondepressed patients (75.3 +/- 6.2 vs 78.0 +/- 5.9 p < 0.05). Concerning the analysis of the severity of depression, serum total cholesterol and serum LDL cholesterol levels were significantly higher in mildly depressed patients than nondepressed patients in females and the same tendency was seen in male patients. No linear associations were shown between the severity of depression and serum lipids. We concluded that hyperlipidemia may be associated with depressive symptoms in elder patients with hypertension and that it might be related the severity of depression. We need to further investigate the relationship between depression and lipid metabolism in larger population samples.