Association between chronic somatic conditions and depression in children and adolescents: A retrospective study of 13,326 patients.

AIMS: The goal of this study was to analyze the association between chronic somatic conditions and depression diagnosis in children and adolescents.

METHODS: The present case-control study included 13,326 children and adolescents with depression as well as controls without depression followed in 243 pediatric practices between 2010 and 2015. Cases and controls were matched by age, gender, index year, and physician. The effect of several chronic disorders in terms of the risk of developing depression was estimated using logistic regression models.

RESULTS: Depression was diagnosed in 0.7% of the population. The prevalence of depression increased with age from 0.2% in individuals aged 7 years to 2.0% in those aged 15 years. Depression was significantly associated with anorexia nervosa (OR = 6.69), ADHD (OR = 2.32), chronic sinusitis (OR = 1.82), short stature due to endocrine disorder (OR = 1.70), obesity (OR = 1.57), disorders of the thyroid gland (OR = 1.53) and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism (OR = 1.42). The risk of a depression diagnosis also increased with the number of chronic conditions (one condition: OR = 1.69; two conditions: OR = 1.81; more than two conditions: OR = 2.03).

CONCLUSIONS: Depression was associated with several chronic disorders and the number of such conditions in pediatric practices in Germany. Therefore, depression should be regularly assessed in young patients affected by chronic disorders.