The relation between depression and bone mineral density in elderly

Abstract

Of the leading causes of disability in the world, according to the world Health Organization, 5 of the top IO disorders are psychiatric in origin (Murray and Lopez, 1996), the number one disorder with the highest disability-adjusted life-years (a measure of life-lost, years lived with a disability, or premature death) was unipolar depression (Weissman, 2000). Depression and its more chronic form of dysthymia received (Moore and Bona, 1999). much attention during the 1990 I Osteoporosis is likely to become the most common t disorder of our aging population (Raisz et al., 2000). Osteoporosis is a major public health problem because of its association with fracture (Walker et la., 2001). It is estimated that around 40% of all white women and 13% of white men in the united States aged 50 years experience at least one clinically apparent• fragility fracture in their life time (Melton et al., 1992).

The overall burden on public health is set to increase dramatically over the next 60 years because of the predicted demographic changes, which should vastly increases the proportion of elderly people in the population (Walker et al., 2001).

Despite the fact that depression and osteoporosis are "separate entities, there is emerging evidence that there might be