Influence of early-life stress on feeding and psychiatric profile of atypical depressed patients

Abstract

People who have been exposed to early-life stress (ELS) may be more vulnerable to psychopathologies, especially to depression. Depression is a recurrent, chronic and heterogeneous psychiatric disorder which causes several impairments in the individual's life. Atypical depression use to be related to life-time trauma exposure, when compared to other subtypes of depression. Besides, atypical depression is characterized by hyper-reactivity to environmental stimuli, fatigue, hypersomnia, hyperfagia, and craving for sweets and carbohydrates. A total of N= 45 subjects will participate of the present study, which n=15 will be atypical depressed patients with ELS, n=15 atypical depressed patients without ELS, and n=15 healthy controls. All subjects will have to answer to a socio-demographic questionnaire, Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, GRID Hamilton Depression Scale, Columbia Atypical Depression Diagnostic Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Questionnaire on Eating and Weight Patterns, Reviewed - Feeding and Weight Standard Questionnaire, Eating Attitudes Test, Binge Eating Scale, and Questionnaire of Feeding Frequency. Having the knowledge if the presence of ELS and/or its subtypes may influence directly in the general symptoms and feeding behavior of atypical depressed patients would be important, considering that the presence of ELS could be used as a factor for differential diagnosis associated to this subtype of depression. (AU)