According to a research, obesity is linked with developing depression and vice versa. This finding is published in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, which is one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Floriana S. Luppino, M. D., of Leiden University Medical Center and GGZ Rivierduinen, Leiden, the Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated the results of 15 previously published studies involving 58,745 participants that observed long association between these two.

The authors write, "We found bidirectional associations between depression and obesity: obese persons had a 55 per cent increased risk of developing depression over time, whereas depressed persons had a 58 per cent increased risk of becoming obese. The association between depression and obesity was stronger than the association between depression and overweight, which reflects a dose-response gradient".

Though uncertainty still hovers around the fact that whether there is any biological link between obesity and depression or not. Obesity is an inflammatory sate and it is connected with threat of depression.

Being thin is the symbol of beauty and being overweight leads to disappointment which may lead to depression at later stages of life. On the other hand depression may lead to obesity sometimes due to antidepressant medication.