Research presented at the European Congress on Obesity suggests that being overweight, especially from a young age, can substantially increase the lifetime risk of major depression.

The study found that being overweight at age 8 or 13 was associated with more than triple the risk of developing major depression at some point in life. Carrying excess weight over a lifetime (both as a child and as an adult) quadrupled the chance of developing depression compared to only being overweight as an adult. 

Previous studies have shown that people who are obese are more likely to become depressed, but few have looked at the influence of early-life obesity over the long term, or the age-related effect of obesity on depression risk.

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