A new study published in the "Archives of Internal Medicine" on November 26, 2007 has found that women who are depressed tend to have lower bone mass than do non-depressed women in the same age range.

Senior author, Giovanni Cizza, who conducted the research at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health reported that premenopausal women with depression should be screened for low bone mass. Cizza is now a staff clinician at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. He believes that physicians should order a bone mineral density measurement "because osteoporosis is a silent condition," he says. "Until someone fractures, you don't know you have osteoporosis."

Previous preliminary studies have also suggested that depression might be a risk factor for low bone mass in older women. This study looked at 89 depressed women on antidepressant medication and 44 women without depression. It was found that 17 percent of the depressed women had thinner bone density in the femoral neck - a vulnerable part of the hip; while only two percent of non depressed women had thinner bone in this area. Also, 20 percent of women who were depressed also had low bone density in the lumbar spine, compared to nine percent of non depressed women. At the same time, it was found that blood and urine samples taken in depressed women revealed that they had lower levels of "good" proteins called cytokines. Dr. Cizza found that the "bad" cytokines that may cause bone loss were higher.

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