Toward Inclusion of Youths With Psychiatric Disorders in Brain-Body Research

To the Editor Laurent et al reported compelling findings regarding the association of obesity with brain structure and function. The study excluded children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, or autism spectrum disorder. The article does not specifically indicate whether other psychiatric disorders were evaluated. Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder are known to confer increased risk and premature onset of cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, these and other psychiatric conditions are perpetually overlooked when considering brain-body associations such as those illuminated by Laurent et al. We wanted to alert the authors and readers of JAMA Pediatrics to 2 related prior studies. First, in a study of adolescents with bipolar disorder and healthy control adolescents, we found a significant diagnosis by body mass index interaction on cortical thickness and volume, in similar frontal regions as those identified by Laurent et al. That is, there was significantly more negative association of body mass index with brain structure within the bipolar disorder group compared with the healthy control group. In a second study of an impulsivity-related neurocognitive task, we found a similar interaction effect: there was a significantly more negative association of waist circumference with poorer task performance in adolescents with bipolar disorder than in healthy control adolescents. While these were separate studies, one can see that our prior fin...
Source: JAMA Pediatrics - Category: Pediatrics Source Type: research