Indicators of Co-occurrence of Mood Disorder with Chronic Medical Conditions: Evidence from an Administrative Claims Data Analysis

Objective Mood disorder (including major depression and bipolar disorder) prevalence is over 10% and accounts for a significant share of global disease burden. Mental and physical illness are related, however, the association between mood disorders and acute/chronic disease subclasses remains poorly understood. Methods This observational cross-sectional study used administrative claims data from 6,709,258 adult enrollees with a full-year enrollment in the 2018 OPTUM Clinformatics® database. Data of enrollees with/without diagnoses of a mood disorder co-occurring with chronic comorbid conditions (defined by the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index) using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) were analyzed by accounting for age, race, and ethnicity. Results Overall, the sample was predominantly non-Hispanic Caucasians (64.56%), with 48.59% females and a mean age of 43.54 years±12.46 years. The prevalence of mood disorders was 3.71% (248,890), of which 0.61% (n=40,616) had bipolar disorders and 3.10% (n=208,274) had Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Logistic regression odds ratios revealed a strong association between mood disorder diagnoses and peptic ulcers (2.11; CI=2.01-2.21), weight loss (2.53; CI, 2.46-2.61), renal failure (2.37, CI = 2.31-2.42), peripheral vascular disease (2.24; CI=2.19-2.30), and pulmonary circulation disorder (1.77; CI=1.70-1.84). Conclusions Overall, mood disorders were associated with vascular and cardiac chronic medical conditions, suggesting a possible pathophysiological link between these conditions. The results highlight the importance of understanding the prevalence of co-occurring mood and medical conditions and may inform novel biological diagnostics and future identification of mechanisms for multimorbidity.