Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Elpers, Henning
• Teismann, Henning
• Wellmann, Jürgen
• Berger, Klaus
• Karch, André
• Rübsamen, Nicole

Titel

Major depressive disorders increase the susceptibility to self-reported infections in two German cohort studies

Ist Teil von

• Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2023-02, Vol.58 (2), p.277-286

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EBSCOhost Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Introduction In several claims-based studies, major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with increased risk of hospitalization due to acute infections. It remains unclear if this is a causal effect, and if it generalizes to an increased susceptibility to infections. Methods We used data of the BiDirect ( n  = 925) and the HaBIDS ( n  = 1007) cohort studies to estimate the effect of MDD on self-reported infections, which were assessed with identical infection susceptibility questionnaires in both studies. We used the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to examine if there was a dose–response relationship between depressive symptom severity and self-reported infections. Results BiDirect participants with MDD diagnosis (48%) had a higher risk of lower respiratory tract infections (incidence rate ratio 1.32, 95% confidence interval [1.00–1.75]), gastrointestinal infections (1.68 [1.30–2.16]) and fever (1.48 [1.11–1.98]) after adjusting for confounders identified by a directed acyclic graph approach. There was a dose–response relationship, i.e. individuals with higher CES-D scores reported more infections. Effect sizes were similar in HaBIDS (4% individuals with MDD). Conclusion We found increased risks of mild infections in patients with MDD diagnosis and a dose–response relationship between depressive symptom severity and infection frequency. While causal immunological pathways remain unclear, the results of our study might contribute to a change in prevention strategies, e.g. by recommending vaccination against influenza and S. pneumoniae to MDD patients because observed effect sizes in our study are similar to those of patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases for which the respective vaccinations are recommended.