Depression had the fourth highest betweenness centrality ranking among 26 network nodes and was prospectively associated with subsequent incidence of ischemic heart disease and diabetes.
Systematic Review
Is depression centrally connected in multimorbid disease clusters and prospectively associated with the onset of common chronic diseases?
Depression is a central connector in multimorbidity networks and is prospectively associated with incident ischemic heart disease and diabetes, highlighting the importance of screening and treatment.
OBJECTIVES: Depression frequently co-occurs with multiple chronic diseases in complex, costly, and dangerous patterns of multimorbidity. The field of health psychology may benefit from evaluating the temporal characteristics of depression's associations with common diseases, and from determining whether depression is a central connector in multimorbid disease clusters. The present review addresses these issues by focusing on 4 of the most prevalent diseases: hypertension, ischemic heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes. METHOD: Study 1 assessed how prior chronic disease diagnoses were associated with current depression in a large, cross-sectional, population-based study. It assessed depression's centrality using network analysis accounting for disease prevalence. Study 2 presents a systematic scoping review evaluating the extent to which depression was prospectively associated with the onset of the 4 prevalent chronic diseases. RESULTS: In Study 1 depression had the fourth highest betweenness centrality ranking of 26 network nodes and centrally connected many existing diseases and unhealthy behaviors. In Study 2 depression was associated with subsequent incidence of ischemic heart disease and diabetes across multiple meta-analyses. Insufficient information was available about depression's prospective associations with incident hypertension and arthritis. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is central in patterns of multimorbidity and is associated with incident disease for several of the most common chronic diseases, justifying the focus on screening and treatment of depression in those at risk for developing chronic disease. Future research should investigate the mediating and moderating roles of health behaviors in the association between depression and the staggered emergence over time of clusters of multimorbid chronic diseases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Birk et al. (Mon,) conducted a systematic review in Depression and multimorbidity. Depression was evaluated on Centrality in multimorbid disease clusters and prospective association with incident chronic diseases. Depression had the fourth highest betweenness centrality ranking among 26 network nodes and was prospectively associated with subsequent incidence of ischemic heart disease and diabetes.