Depression: Complications

The following are the most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by depression:

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic disorders (E00-E90).

  • Obesity (obesity).
  • Diabetes mellitus type 2
  • Gestational diabetes (pregnancy diabetes)
  • Malnutrition (malnutrition)
  • Malnutrition

Factors influencing health status and leading to health care utilization (Z00-Z99).

  • Suicide (suicide)

Skin and subcutaneous tissue (L00-L99)

  • Herpes zoster (shingles; segmental pain, semigirdular, precedes exanthema/rash).
  • Pruritus (itching)
  • Pruritus ani (anal itching)
  • Seborrheic eczema – greasy, scaly inflammation of the skin; especially in areas of the skin where there are many sebaceous glands, such as the hairy head, face and trunk.

Cardiovascular system (I00-I99).

  • Apoplexy (stroke)
  • Arterial hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • Atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries)
  • Heart failure (cardiac insufficiency)
  • Coronary heart disease (CHD)
  • Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
  • Cerebral atherosclerosis

Mouth, esophagus (food pipe), stomach and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).

Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (M00-M99)

  • Osteoporosis (bone loss)
  • Back pain?
  • Sarcopenia (muscle weakness or muscle wasting).

Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99)

  • Drug-induced headache
  • Bulimia nervosa (binge eating disorder)
  • Dementia – depressive episodes increase dementia risk; new depression > 50 years of age: 2.03-fold higher dementia risk than in patients without new-onset depression
  • Erectile dysfunction (erectile dysfunction, ED).
  • Extracranial carotid stenosis – narrowing of the carotid artery outside the bony skull (extracranial).
  • Insomnia (sleep disturbances) – problems falling asleep, nocturnal wakefulness and early morning awakening resulting in daytime sleepiness.
  • Tension-type headache (tension headache).
  • Mild cognitive impairment (LKB; also mild cognitive impairment; English : Mild cognitive impairment, MCI).
  • Alzheimer’s disease
    • Depression is associated with twice the risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia
    • Depression could be a prodromal symptom (symptom indicative of disease) for Alzheimer’s disease rather than a cause of it
  • Orgasm disorder
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [due to traumatization of mental illness].
  • Psychogenic hyperventilation (increased breathing beyond what is required).
  • Transient ischemic attack (TIA) – sudden onset of circulatory disturbance in the brain, resulting in neurological dysfunction that resolves within 24 hours
  • Transition to other psychiatric clinical pictures such as mania.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum

  • Prematurity*
  • Hyperemesis gravidarum (extreme morning sickness) – extreme vomiting during pregnancy.
  • Intrauterine growth retardation*

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory parameters not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).

  • Cachexia (emaciation; very severe emaciation).
  • Suicidality (suicidal tendencies) – especially high risk on sunny days, which increase the drive to act, which is particularly fatal in patients with major depression; frequency peaks in spring, when the duration of the day increases
  • Underweight

Genitourinary system (kidneys, urinary tract – sex organs) (N00-N99)

  • Urinary incontinence

Further

  • Violence – after accounting for socioeconomic factors such as income and background, depressed individuals were three times more likely than non-depressed individuals to be convicted as violent offenders (3.7% versus 1.2%).
  • Partnership conflicts → separations (about 45%).
  • Social isolation
  • Independent risk factor for increased (cardiovascular) mortality (death rate).
  • Shortening of telomeres in leukocytes (white blood cells).
  • Increase in pain sensitivity (chronic pain).

* Peripartum depression