Associations Between Anxiety, Body Mass Index, and Sex Hormones in Women

Bibliographic Data

ID15517487
AuthorsDaniela Staníková (0000-0003-2606-6828, Institute of Experimental Endocrinology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences), Tobias Luck (0000-0001-7551-4397, Leipzig University), Alexander Pabst (0000-0003-0432-5681, Leipzig University), Yoon Ju Bae (0000-0003-3438-173X, Leipzig University), Andreas Hinz (0000-0002-6986-8145, Leipzig University), Heide Glaesmer (0000-0002-3752-7653, Leipzig University), Juraj Staník (0000-0002-0538-1274, Comenius University Bratislava), Julia Sacher (0000-0003-0944-0558, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences), Christoph Engel (0000-0001-8451-3599, Leipzig University), Cornelia Enzenbach (0000-0002-4545-3287, Leipzig University), Kerstin Wirkner (0009-0000-1301-7125, Leipzig University), Uta Ceglarek (0000-0002-4034-5535, Leipzig University), Joachim Thiery (0000-0001-7606-1852, Leipzig University), Jüergen Kratzsch (Leipzig University), Steffi G Riedel-Heller (0000-0003-4321-6090, Leipzig University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume10
Publication date2019-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1664-0640 • E-ISSN: 1664-0640
PublisherFrontiers Media (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00479
OpenAlexW2951194122
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited49

Background. Several studies have shown a positive association between anxiety and obesity, particularly in women. We aimed to study whether sex hormone alterations related to obesity might play a role in this association. Patients and methods. Data for this study were obtained from a population-based cohort study (the LIFE-Adult-Study). A total of 3124 adult women (970 premenopausal and 2154 postmenopausal), were included into analyses. The anxiety symptomatology was assessed using the GAD-7 questionnaire (cut off ≥ 10 points). Sex hormones were measured from fasting serum samples. Results. We did not find significant differences in anxiety prevalence in premenopausal obese women compared to normal-weight controls (4.8% vs 5.5%). Both obesity and anxiety symptomatology were separately associated with the same sex hormone alteration in premenopausal women: higher total testosterone level (0.97±0.50 in obese vs. 0.86±0.49 nmol/L in normal-weight women, p=0.026 and 1.04±0.59 in women with vs. 0.88±0.49 nmol/L in women without anxiety symptomatology, p=0.023) . However, women with anxiety symptomatology had non-significantly higher estradiol levels compared to women without anxiety symptomatology (548.0±507.6 vs. 426.2±474.0 pmol/L), whereas obesity was associated with lower estradiol levels compared to normal-weight group (332.7±386.5 vs. 470.8±616.0 pmol/L). Women with anxiety symptomatology had also significantly higher testosterone and estradiol composition (p=0.006). No associations of sex hormone levels and BMI with anxiety symptomatology in postmenopausal women were found. Conclusions. Although both obesity and anxiety symptomatology were separately associated with higher testosterone level, there was an opposite impact of anxiety and obesity on estradiol levels in premenopausal women. We did not find an evidence that the sex hormone alterations related to obesity are playing a significant role in anxiety symptomatology in premenopausal women. This could be the explanation, why we did not find an association between obesity and anxiety. In postmenopausal women seem to work other mechanisms compared to premenopausal group

Androgen · Anxiety · Body mass index · Cohort · Hormone · Obesity · Population · Psychiatry · Sex hormone-binding globulin · Testosterone (patch · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Hormonal and reproductive studies · Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones · Medicine · Endocrinology · Internal Medicine · Physiology

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