Obesity in adolescent girls is likely to cause depressive disorder, a new study has said.

Kim Boutelle, associate professor of paediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), stated, “This is important because depressive symptoms are considered a precursor to major depression.”

As per the Centre for Disease and Prevention, childhood obesity has increased threefold during the last 30 years. The occurrence of obesity among teenagers between 12 to 19 years surged from 5.0% to 18.1% in the year 2008.

Likewise, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a twelve monthly poll sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, discovered that 2.0 million youths aged 12 to 17 had at least one major depressive episode in 2007.

Knowing that the teenage years are often a chaotic period in a young person's life, Boutelle and her fellow workers commence to decide whether obesity contributes to the development of depression among youth.

Through a structured psychiatric interview test, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS), assessors collected responses from around 500 girls between the ages of 13 and 16 years, of various ethnicities.

To receive a diagnosis of depressive disorder, the girls had to report the occurrence and severity of at least five symptoms.

At each of four yearly assessments, the girls were weighed and measured. Data from the interviews indicated that obese status was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, but not major depression, said a university release.

The study results appeared in the May issue of Health Psychology. (With Inputs from Agencies)