The University of Edinburgh

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 19, 2025 -- Middle-aged and older adults with a history of depression have more long-term physical health conditions at baseline and develop additional physical conditions at a faster rate than those without a history of depression, according to a study published online Feb. 13 in PLOS Medicine . Kelly J. Fleetwood, from University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and colleagues quantified the association between depression and the subsequent rate of accrual of long-term physical health conditions in middle and older age. The analysis included 172,556 participants from the U.K. Biobank (aged 40 to 71 years old at baseline assessment in 2006 to 2010). The researchers found that compared with those without depression, participants with depression had more physical conditions at baseline (mean 2.9 versus 2.1) and developed additional physical conditions at a faster rate (mean 0.20 versus 0.16 additional conditions per year during follow-up). When adjusting for age and sex, participants with depression developed physical morbidities at a faster rate than those without depression (relative risk [RR], 1.32). The rate of new conditions still remained higher in those with versus without depression when adjusting for all sociodemographic characteristics (RR, 1.30). When further adjusting for baseline condition count and social/lifestyle factors, this association attenuated but remained statistically significant (RR, 1.10). "Our findings highlight the importance of integrated approaches to managing both mental and physical health outcomes," the authors write. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

THURSDAY, Feb. 13, 2025 -- Depression hits the whole body, speeding the onset of long-term physical ills as people age, new research contends. “People who’ve experienced depression are more likely to develop long-term physical health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes," noted a team led by Kelly Fleetwood , a statistician at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Their study of more than 172,500 Britons over the age of 39 found that those with a history of depression began to develop long-term physical conditions about 30% earlier than people without such histories. The findings were published Feb. 13 in the journal PLOS Medicine . The new study looked at data from the ongoing UK Biobank. It included adults ages 40 to 71 who completed baseline assessments between 2006 and 2010. Participants' health was followed for an average of just under seven years, and Fleetwood's team tracked the onset of 69 selected physical conditions. Over the study period, people without any history of depression developed an average of 0.16 of these conditions per year, the study found. However, that number jumped to 2.0 per year for people who had a history of depression. Among the most common illnesses: osteoarthritis (15.7% of those with depression versus 12.5% without); high blood pressure (12.9% versus 12.0%); and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (13.8% versus 9.6%). All of this means that depression should be looked upon holistically, as a "whole body" disease, and treated accordingly, researchers said. "However, existing healthcare systems are designed to treat individual conditions, instead of individual people with multiple conditions," they wrote. "We need healthcare services to take an integrated approach to caring for people who have both depression and long-term physical health conditions." Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 26, 2025 -- Very early-stage breast cancers are notoriously tough to spot via mammograms , but new technology might make detection easier. According to a new study published recently in the Journal of Biophotonics , Scottish researchers are combining AI with high-tech "laser analysis" to spot changes in circulating blood that could signal the earliest stages of breast tumors. Innovations like these could end up saving cancer patients' lives, said lead study author Andy Downes , a senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “Most deaths from cancer occur following a late-stage diagnosis after symptoms become apparent, so a future screening test for multiple cancer types could find these at a stage where they can be far more easily treated," Downes noted in a university news release. The small study involved 24 blood samples: 12 obtained from breast cancer patients and 12 from healthy people. The new technology involves subjecting the blood's plasma to laser beam analysis (a technology called Raman spectroscopy) and then using a device called a spectrometer to analyze the ways in which laser light interacts with the blood. As Downes' team explained, even tiny shifts in the chemical make-up of cells and tissues under spectroscopy can provide clues to where cancer is present. AI is then used to help quickly and accurately interpret the findings. The result: In this small study, at least, the new technology was 98% effective in spotting stage 1a breast cancers, the very earliest stage. Beyond that, the strategy was 90% effective in differentiating between the 4 major subtypes of breast cancer. Knowing the exact type of cancer a person has, at a very early stage, makes decisions around treatment easier and could save lives. Downes explained that the findings are still early, but could have implications that reach far beyond breast cancer. "Early diagnosis is key to long-term survival, and we finally have the technology required," Downes concluded. "We just need to apply it to other cancer types and build up a database, before this can be used as a multi-cancer test.” Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.