Metabolic Syndrome in Drug-naïve Patients with Depressive Disorders

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) is found to be higher in patients with depression than in the general population. As there is lack of data from India, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of MS in patients with depression who had never been treated with antidepressants for their depressive disorder and compare the same with a matched group of healthy controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-three drug-naïve patients with depressive disorders and 43 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were assessed for the prevalence of MS as per the consensus definition. RESULTS: The prevalence of MS in patients with depression was 37.2% and was significantly higher than that seen in the healthy controls (16.3%). Increased waist circumference was the most common abnormality in both the study groups. Compared to healthy controls, a significantly higher proportion of patients with depression had abnormal waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, or high blood pressure. Besides 16 patients with depressive disorders having MS, another 53.5% of patients fulfilled one or two criteria of MS. None of the sociodemographic variables was associated with development of MS in patients with depression. CONCLUSIONS: Slightly more than one-third of depressed patients who are drug-naïve have MS and this prevalence rate is significantly higher than in healthy controls.