Mental disorders and physical diseases
For the first time, psychologists at the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum have identified disease patterns in young people.
Depression were frequently followed by arthritis and diseases of the digestive system.
Skin diseases are common after anxiety disorders.
If the person had suffered from a heart disease – anxiety disorders were more common.
A close association was also found for the first time between epileptic disorders and subsequent eating disorders – ‘This suggests that approaches to epilepsy treatment could also have potential in the context of eating disorders,’ explains Marion Tegethoff, the study’s lead author.
The results offer important insights into the causal relationship between mental disorders and physical diseases.
The study published in the journal PLOS ONE, analyzed data from a representative sample of 6,483 teenagers from the US aged between 13 and 18.
From a health policy perspective, the findings points that the treatment of mental disorders and physical diseases should be closely interlinked from an early age on.
