Study: Depression Causes Brittle Bones

Jan. 13 -- Someone suffering from depression might experience bouts of insomnia, loss of appetite, and overall lethargy. It can also trigger less obvious problems.

Growing evidence suggests that depression, one of the most common diseases of the brain, is so powerful it can actually erode bones in the body.

Cindy Uhl, a lab technician in Rochester, Minn., was one of those people determined to stay healthy. She exercised regularly, ate well, and routinely took vitamin and mineral supplements. Then one day two years ago, walking to work, she slipped and fell. Her wrist was shattered.

"It looked like I had gone through a car windshield from the way the bones had been damaged," she said.

During the operation, doctors discovered why. Uhl had remarkably brittle bones. At only 46, she had advanced osteoporosis.

"Usually a woman that age can sustain a fall and put their wrist out and catch themselves and not have any problem," said her physician, Dr. Lorraine Fitzpatrick of the Mayo Clinic. "But she had this very bad fracture.

"Cindy had the bones that were the equivalent of someone who's 15 to 20 years older than she was," said Fitzpatrick.

One likely explanation, doctors said, was that Uhl had suffered from a bout of depression years earlier.

Dr. Philip Gold, chief of the Clinical Neuroendocrinology branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, is conducting pioneering research on the effects of depression on bone density.

"If you are a pre-menopausal woman and you've had major depression you have a 25 to 30 percent chance of having lost significant amounts of bone and are at much higher risk of fracture," said Gold.

"The general physician and people in the general population would be very surprised to find out there is such a significant risk of osteoporosis in patients with depression."

Brain Controls Hormones, Causing Bone Loss

Depression is like a severe and prolonged state of stress. It causes blood pressure and the heart rate to increase. It also causes the brain to produce dangerously high levels of hormones.