Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: We tested our hypotheses that higher anxiety/depression scores can be connected with food preference of carbohydrates and higher insulin resistance.

Methods: We examined 42 healthy men (average age 43.5±7.4 years, average BMI 27.4±5.7 kg/m²). Study protocol included filling in the self-asssessing scores of anxiety (SAS) resp. depression (SDS), carbohydrate-craving questionnaire (CCQ); assessment of 3-days diet records, hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp on two levels of insulinemia (1 and 10 mU/kg per min) with calculation of glucose disposal resp. metabolic clearance rate of glucose for both insulin levels (M1, M2 resp. MCR1 a MCR2) and citalopram challenge test (infusion of 0.3 mg/kg of citalopram with measurement of prolactin levels in minutes: −30, −15, 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and with calculation of area under the curve for prolactin levels. Student’s t-test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Spearman’s corelation coefficient were used for statistical analyses.

Results: We observed positive correlations between SAS resp. SDS scores and intake of monocarbohydrates in food: r=0.44, P=0.02; resp. r=0.4, P=0.03, but negative correlation between MCR2 and SAS resp. SDS in the whole studied group: r=−0.38, P=0.04; r=−0.04, P=0.03, whereas in the subgroup of insulin sensitive subjects MCR2 and SAS corelated positively: r=0.55, P<0.05. We did not find any relationship between response in citalopram challenge test and either food preference of carbohydrates or parametres of insulin resistance.

Conclucions: Subjects with higher depression/anxiety scores prefer more carbohydrates in the food. In general, subjects with higher depression/anxiety scores are more insulin resistant in comparison with those less anxious/depressive while the subjects from insulin sensitive subgroup seem to be more anxious than those insulin resistant. The study was supported by VZ MSM 0021620814.