Childhood Maltreatment,  Atypical and Melancholic Depression, and Eating Styles in Depressed Adults: – A Path Analysis in the NESDA Cohort

The associations between childhood maltreatment, depression, and eating styles, such as emotional eating (eating in response to feelings), external eating (eating in response to external cues like smell), and restrained eating (trying to restrain food intake), are well-documented. However, major depressive disorder is a heterogeneous concept and can be categorized into atypical and melancholic depression. Atypical depression includes increased appetite and weight symptoms, while melancholic depression includes decreased appetite and weight symptoms. We examined the direct and indirect relationships between childhood maltreatment, atypical and melancholic depression symptom dimensions, and eating styles in depressed adults. Using path analysis and multigroup analysis (age, gender, weight, depression, and anxiety), we analyzed d 757 depressed adults from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Childhood maltreatment associated positively with both atypical ( = -.047, p = ...Show moreThe associations between childhood maltreatment, depression, and eating styles, such as emotional eating (eating in response to feelings), external eating (eating in response to external cues like smell), and restrained eating (trying to restrain food intake), are well-documented. However, major depressive disorder is a heterogeneous concept and can be categorized into atypical and melancholic depression. Atypical depression includes increased appetite and weight symptoms, while melancholic depression includes decreased appetite and weight symptoms. We examined the direct and indirect relationships between childhood maltreatment, atypical and melancholic depression symptom dimensions, and eating styles in depressed adults. Using path analysis and multigroup analysis (age, gender, weight, depression, and anxiety), we analyzed d 757 depressed adults from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Childhood maltreatment associated positively with both atypical ( = -.047, p = .042) and melancholic depression ( = .109, p = .003). Atypical depression associated positively with emotional eating ( = .297, p < .001) and external eating ( = .159, p < .001), while melancholic depression associated negatively with emotional eating ( = -.111, p < .001). Childhood maltreatment was associated negatively with external eating ( = -.108, p = .003), and no other significant associations were found (p > .05). Indirect effects indicated that atypical depression partially mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and emotional eating ( = .022, p = .048). Exploratory analyses found distinct associations for childhood maltreatment types. Emotional abuse associated positively with emotional ( = .105, p = .041) and restrained eating ( = .176, p < .001), and physical neglect associated negatively with all eating styles (emotional:  = -.108, p = .028; external:  = -.178, p < .001; restrained:  = -.113, p = .027). Note that the associations of atypical and melancholic depression with eating styles were primarily driven by appetite and weight symptoms, as shown by models controlled for these factors. These findings emphasize the importance of distinguishing between atypical and melancholic depression and accounting for appetite and weight symptoms in future research for a better understanding of the associations between childhood maltreatment, depression, and eating styles.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Childhood Maltreatment, Atypical and Melancholic Depression, and Eating Styles in Depressed Adults: – A Path Analysis in the NESDA Cohort